Sept. 20, 2008

Box Score |  Photo Gallery 

Allendale, Mich. - #2 Grand Valley State built a 21-7 halftime lead and never looked back en route to a 31-13 GLIAC victory over #24 Ferris State before a Lubbers Stadium record crowd of 14,612. GVSU improves to 3-0 overall and GLIAC action, while Ferris State falls to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in GLIAC play. GVSU will host Michigan Tech next Saturday (Sept. 27) at 7 p.m.

Following a punt on its first possession the Lakers' senior DT Dan Skuta forced a fumble on the first play of the Bulldog's second possession. GVSU drove 20 yards in four plays, highlighted by a diving touchdown catch by freshman receiver Greg Gay from junior QB Brad Iciek. Senior PK Todd Carter added the PAT for a 7-0 Laker lead. The Laker defense foreced a three-and-out and the Laker offense went back into motion. GVSU drove 59 yards in seven plays for the scored. Iciek hit junior RB Blake Smolen with a 10-yard TD pass and Carter added the PAT for a 14-0 GVSU lead.

"We were fortunate to get that turnover and build a 14-0 first quarter lead," said head coach Chuck Martin.

Ferris State struck back with a 13-play, 83-yard drive that resulted in a Paris Holloman 2-yard TD run and Jim Yates added the PAT. Following a missed field goal by the Bulldogs, GVSU drove 80 yards in five plays for a TD. Iciek hit sophomore RB James Berezik with a 18-yard pass, followed by a 23-yard pass from Iciek to TE Jonn Mathews. Iciek then hit Smolen with a 39-yard TD pass over the middle to build the Laker lead to 21-7 after 30 minutes.

"The scoring drive at the end of the second quarter was huge," said Martin. "We clicked on offense and were able to execute the plays the way they were designed."

Ferris State pulled to within 21-13 late in the third quarter, but the Lakers answered with an 8-play, 64-yard scoring drive to up its lead to 28-13. Smolen carries the ball four times for 21 yards, followed by three straight completions from Iciek to Blasko that covered 18 yards. Smolen finished the drive with a 15-yard touchdown run to up the Laker lead to 28-13. p>

Junior safety Jacob McGuckin picked off a fourth down pass from Ferris State quarterback Tom Schneider to thwart one fourth-quarter Bulldog drive. Smolen and Berezik keyed another Laker scoring drive that resulted in a 37-yard Carter field goal. Berezik toted the ball four times for 46 yards on the drive. McGuckin picked off another Schneider pass and returned it 57 yards to the Bulldog one. However, a loss of one yard on a running play was followed by two incomplete passes and then a blocked field goal.

"We were able to get the win and anytime you get a win it feels good, but we need to play better football next week against Michigan Tech," said Martin. "We made way a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball."

Berezik broke the 100-yard rushing mark for the the third straight game with 108 yards on 13 carries. Smolen added 45 yards rushing and one TD, while also catching three passes for 58 yards and two TDs. Smolen notched 141 all-purpose yards, while Berezik added 126. Iciek completed 14-of-26 passes for 158 yards and three TDs. Blasko led the receiving corps with four catches for 25 yards.

Sophomore LB P.J. Beuke and freshman LB Brad Howard each collected career-high's in tackles with 13 apiece. Sophomore LB Justin Victor added nine tackles and senior safety Samad Cain chipped in eight.

Quotes

Head Coach Chuck Martin:

"First, props to Ferris. I thought they did a good job schematically on both sides of the ball. They had a good plan. I think their kids executed at a much higher level than we executed. I told coach (Jeff) Pierce, `From the bottom of my heart, I think you out-coached us, you out-played us, you out-executed us.' We made a few big plays.

"Positives, defensively we had some good stops down in the red zone. We had a stop before the first half which was huge. We preach that it doesn't matter how bad it is going at times. Defensively we were out there reeling and they had a good plan. They were using clock from the get-go. From the first quarter they would run the play clock down and try to shorten the game, which is exactly what I would do if I was them. They were moving the ball down the field and making some plays. Obviously their quarterback is a competitor. (Tim) Hogue is a good player. I don't know how many yards he had but he hurt us a bunch.

"We made that stop right before the half and our offense had the nice two-minute drive and got a big score. Obviously that's a huge difference, 21-7 it could have been 14-14 at half. That was a huge swing. And late, the play that Jake (McGuckin) makes down in the red zone after another nice Ferris drive kind of sealed the deal.

"I thought it was a hard fought football game. I thought our kids competed. I have no problem with the way the kids competed. I certainly am disappointed in our level of preparation as coaches and player alike. We don't just put it on the players because we're not preparing them well enough because we did not execute at all at times. Besides the dropped balls there's other things that we are going to be sick about when we look at the tape as far as execution goes and defensively, tackling - two out of three games we've played we haven't tackled at all. The only conclusion you can come too as a coach is our mental approach."

On FSU Quarterback Tom Schneider: "He did a nice job, they tried to mix up some schemes and mixed up their blocking. I thought he showed great toughness. I think most of his yardage came when we had a tackle for loss and he broke free. Give credit to him. He's obviously a very good runner, but from our standpoint we'd like to think you can tackle a quarterback with a linebacker one-on-one, but we've had issues with that two of the three weeks. They threw the ball well, which they haven't done much because they've been playing with leads. He obviously threw it better than his numbers coming in. You take away the two picks and he played one dynamite football game. Unfortunately for us, he is just a freshman."

On the difference in the game: "I guess we made a few more plays in the passing game, though they threw for more yards. I really don't know how we won the game to be honest with you. The best thing is we won by 18 and I think they're a pretty good football team. They're a quality coached football team and they are a senior-laden team, and I'm sure they made mistakes and didn't play a perfect football games. I think they out-played us and we still won by 18 so I guess that's the most positive thing. I said in the preseason we're going to have to win some games ugly early and that was about as ugly as it gets.

On FSU defensive tackle Jake Visser: He didn't make a ton of plays but the linebackers made a mess of plays. We did a good job of keeping Visser out of the backfield and we did a good job in pass protection, he wasn't around Brad (Iciek) very much. But I still think he had a great impact on the game. They kind of allowed him to eat up the double team a let the linebacker run free.