Nov. 11, 2006
Box Score
Marquette, Michigan -
Grand Valley State senior quarterback Cullen Finnerty threw five first half touchdowns as the Lakers completed their fifth undefeated regular season (11-0) in school history and fourth in the last six years with a 47-17 victory at Northern Michigan in the Superior Dome. In addition, GVSU won its 24th straight game, extending the nations longest college football winning streak. Grand Valley State will receive a bye in the first round of the NCAA DII Playoffs that will begin November 18. GVSU will open the playoffs on Saturday, November 25 at Lubbers Stadium versus an opponent to be determined.
GVSU rolled down the field in on its opening possession as Finnerty completed a 6-play, 71-yard drive with a 6-yard TD pass to Eric Fowler. Finnerty's TD pass to Fowler was the first of three to the senior from New Haven, Michigan and first of six overall on the day in a little more than two quarters of action.
Northern Michigan answered with a 13-play, 70-yard drive that resulted in a Jon Laue 28-yard Northern field goal. However, the Lakers drove 50 yards in seven plays and scored when Finnerty hit Fowler with a 20-yard TD pass and catch. The PAT was missed and the Lakers led 13-3. Tight end John Mathews hauled in a 20-yard TD reception from Finnerty over the middle to open the second quarter to give Grand Valley a 20-3 lead.
"The Northern Michigan defense gave us great looks in the passing game today and we really did a great job of taking advantage of those opportunities," said head coach Chuck Martin. "Our offense needed to take some pressure off our defense today because we were missing four starters," added Martin.
Northern Michigan's Greg Raspberry caught a deflected pass from QB Buddy Rivera and scored on an 84-yard pass to close the gap (20-10) on the Lakers.
The Lakers came back quickly as Finnerty led the offense on a 4-play, 52-yard drive that took 1:43 off the clock. Finnerty hit WR Terry Mitchell in the corner of the end zone with a 15-yard TD pass to give GVSU a 27-10 lead. The Laker defense forced a three and out and Finnerty guided a 3-play, 62-yard scoring drive that took just 50 seconds. Finnerty found Antione Trent in the corner of the end zone with a 13-yard touchdown pass and catch to give GVSU a 33-10 lead.
. "Cullen (Finnerty) did a nice job of getting the ball down field and giving our receivers a chance to make a play and I was really happy with how our receivers played in all facets of the game," said Martin.
The Laker offense continued to dominate in the second half, opening with an 8-play, 88-yard drive that ended with Finnerty throwing his sixth TD pass of the day. Finnerty scrambled to his right and threw a 33-yard scoring pass to Fowler, who caught his third TD pass of the day.
The Laker reserves came in the game at the 3:25 mark of the third quarter and quickly drove 81 yards in seven plays as Brad Iciek hit Mike Koster with a 23-yard TD pass at the 13:19 mark of the fourth quarter to give GVSU a 47-10 lead. Northern Michigan added a late TD for the final margin of 47-17.
The Laker offense produced 533 total yards, including 364 through the air and 169 on the ground. GVSU averaged 10.5 yards per play. Finnerty completed 13-of-18 passes for 296 yards and six TDs. His six TDs was a career-high and a Superior Dome single-game record. WR Eric Fowler caught seven passes for a career-high 176 yards and a career-high three TDs. Mike Koster caught two passes for 68 yards and a TD, while Antione Trent hauled in two passes for 32 yards and a TD. Maurice Gore led the rushing attack with 58 yards on nine carries, while Astin Martin rushed for 31 yards on seven carries in limited action.
"Our defense did a great job today with a limited number of players due to injury," said Martin. "We gave up one long pass play on crazy bounce and besides that we limited Northern to just 292 yards of total offense."
Defensively, Brandon Carr tallied a team-high seven tackles, while brother Tony Carr added seven. DT Derrick Jones tallied four tackles, a career-high three QB sacks and 3.5 TFL. The Lakers recorded 10 tackles for loss and five QB sacks on the day. Derek Stansbery picked off a pass in the fourth quarter for GVSU. The Lakers held NMU to 376 yards of total offense, including 36 via the ground.
Notes...GVSU improved to 81-5 in its last 86 games and 54-3 in its last 57 GLIAC games...The Laker senior class improved to 48-4 in their careers...GVSU is 46-2 when ranked number one and the Lakers have been ranked number one in 54-of-the-last-68 polls...Finnerty became the GVSU all-time leader and moved into fourth all-time in DII career total offense list with 11,970 yards...Cullen is 10th in DII history in career passing TDs with 98 and second in GVSU annals...Finnerty is 17th in DII history with 9,849 passing yards...Eric Fowler's 16 receiving TDs is the third-best single-season total and his total of 23 the third-best career total.
