Huskies football set to battle top-ranked Bulldogs | News, Sports, Jobs

Michigan Tech wide receiver Nic Nora cuts to his left during a game against Upper Iowa Saturday, Sept. 20, at Kearly Stadium in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — At first glance, a 16-14 win over Davenport might not seem like a big deal for a Michigan Tech Huskies football team that improved to 5-1 overall and “-0 in GLIAC play, but for the Huskies, the win could prove to be an important lesson in the Huskies’ maturity.

“Our guys played hard,” said Huskies coach Dan Mettlach. “Loved our physicality, obviously, limited them quite a bit defensively and offensively. We moved the football, (but) sputtered in the red zone, which we need to clean up. Obviously, that’s a point of emphasis going into this weekend, but special teams played really well. Had a couple turnovers, and, obviously, field goals and whatnot. But, overall, any time you can go on the road and beat a team like that, doesn’t matter what the score is, we’ll take that every single time.”

Mettlach had made winning in Caledonia a focus for the Huskies this season, since it has proven, traditionally, to be a tough place for the Huskies to play prior to Saturday.

“That was something we talked about as a team going into it, (the) last couple years,” he said. “That’s been one that we played good games with them, but couldn’t find a way to get it done. That was a point of emphasis going into this weekend. It didn’t matter how we did it, just finding a way to get it done.

“Really proud of the guys for our play, the next play mentality, that we had down there. That end of the fourth quarter, there were a couple situations where, whether or not be able to hang on the football to run the clock out, or defensively, we go out on the field and really not giving up much the whole time, and then they hit a couple of vertical shots on us to get back into the scoring zone. The guys just keep playing and keep playing.”

The Huskies needed, and got, another strong performance from their defense. They gave up 131 yards through the air and only 55 on the ground. Much of that was thanks to the efforts of junior linebacker Chase Koch, who finished with 11 tackles and senior defensive back Dante Basanese, who finished with eight. However, it was the efforts of players like junior defensive tackle Pierce Miller, senior defensive lineman Connor Hindenach, and senior linebacker Porter Zeeman that enhanced what the Huskies were able to accomplish defensively.

“I mean, he’s (Koch) been pretty consistent,” Mettlach said. “To be honest, our front controlled the football game; Pierce Miller had a good day. Connor Hindenach, Porter Zeeman was incredible on Saturday. So, as a whole, I just thought that unit, you could see kind of the confidence growing as the game went on, and the energy and so on and so forth. Everybody fed off of it. As a whole, I thought that side of football played really well all day long.”

Offensively, the Huskies rely on a number of young players in skill positions from redshirt sophomore quarterback Alex Bueno, to redshirt sophomore wide receivers Nic Nora and Bryce Kurncz. The Panthers did some things defensively that made it tough for the Huskies to create a lot of offense.

“That’s just the way it goes,” said Mettlach. “You play the top half of Division II football with the GLIAC, and I give Davenport a ton of credit. They were athletic. They were big. They’re strong. Even times where we thought we had some stuff, their corners got our guys locked up on the outside, and (it) just was tough to find some grass to run in.

“So, not anything we didn’t do, but those are situations where for the first couple weeks we were seeing a lot of zone coverage, our guys were running free in the grass, and on this particular day, they were aggressive on the outside. We knew they were going to be, and thought we had some things to where we could take advantage of some man coverage, and just weren’t able to.”

This Saturday, the Huskies welcome the top-ranked Ferris State Bulldogs to Kearly Stadium. Mettlach knows the challenge will be a steep one for the Huskies, but he has addressed with his team what they need to be focused on.

“Our guys need to understand that it’s about Michigan Tech,” he said. “We’ve got to execute on all three phases of the game, and not just go play a jersey, or what their record is, or what they’ve done in the past. It’s a home game for us, but we’re excited to be back at home, excited to be in this situation. It’s not often you have the No. 1 team coming into your place, and we get that opportunity this weekend.

“They are very talented. They’re good. There’s a reason they’re No. 1, but we can’t make it any bigger from that standpoint. Our guys have to show up and have confidence that we can be playing in these types of games. I think our locker room is in a good spot right now.”

Mettlach wants his team to take care of what is in their control.

“They’re good everywhere,” he said. “It’s not like you’re going into this game plan saying we’re going to take advantage of one specific guy. They’re talented everywhere. Our guys know that we have to execute at a high level with consistency to be able to move the football against them, stop them, whatever it might be. They’re good on special teams as well.

“They get speed everywhere, and we’ve just got to be good, taking care of what we can control. It doesn’t change because it’s Ferris State. ‘Let’s go do something completely different,’ that doesn’t give us a chance at all. Confident with where we’re at right now. We’ll put together a plan, and our guys have to play hard. The big thing for us is we just got to execute.

Scouting the Bulldogs

The Bulldogs are 6-0, and 2-0 in GLIAC play after defeating Wayne State, 59-0, last Saturday.

Redshirt freshman Wyatt Bower drives the offense, going 70-of-107 through the air for 1,140 yards and 12 touchdowns. His favorite targets have been junior Taariik Brett, who has 13 catches for 166 yards and two touchdowns, and senior Brady Rose, who has 12 catches for 152 yards.

Bower has also been good on the ground, rushing a team-high 70 times for 471 yards and five touchdowns. Junior running back Zak Ahern has also been good, rushing 40 times for 308 yards.

Game time

The Huskies and Bulldogs are set for a 12 p.m. start Saturday at Kearly Stadium in Houghton.