Oct. 3, 2009

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Allendale, Mich. - Senior WR Blake Smolen scored four first quarter touchdowns for No. 1 ranked Grand Valley State Saturday (Oct. 3) night as the Lakers cruised to a 47-21 victory over Tiffin. GVSU, 6-0 overall and 5-0 in GLIAC action, will hit the road next Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. tilt at No. 24 Hillsdale College.

GVSU took the opening kickoff 66 yards in three plays and used just 1:13 off the clock. Senior QB Brad Iciek hit Mike Koster for 11 yards, followed by a 45 yard pass to sophomore TE Andrew Lorman to the Tiffin 10. Smolen scored the first of his three rushing TDs with a 10 yard scamper to paydirt and Justin Trumble added the PAT. Following a Tiffin punt to the Laker 10, Iciek directed a 10-play, 90 yard drive that took 3:39 off the clock. Iciek hit P.T. Gates for 28 and Koster for 18 on pass plays. Smolen toted the ball the final 20 yards for a 14-0 GVSU lead. The Laker defense forced a quick three-and-out to get the ball back. Smolen caught a pass for 19, followed by rushes from James Berezik that covered 15 and 12 yards. Gates ran for 12 and Smolen finished the drive with a 13-yard TD run, his third of the first quarter. The Dragons managed just eight yards in three plays and were forced to punt for the third time in the first quarter. With the clock showing 40 seconds, Iciek hit Smolen on a bubble screen and Smolen went 71 yards for his fourth TD of the first quarter.

"I wanted to start fast and we were able to do it with a great first quarter on both sides of the ball," said head coach Chuck Martin. "

Iciek hit WR Mike Koster with a 15 yard TD pass in the second quarter to give GVSU a 34-0 lead. That would be the end of the night for the Laker starters on both offense and defense. Tiffin scored their only points of the first half on a 13 yard pass from Nate Scully to Greg Raspberry, but GVSU answered quickly with a three play, 53-yard drive. WR Greg Gay toted the ball in from five yards out for a touchdown to give the Lakers a 41-7 halftime lead.

Grand Valley State was driving for another score in the closing moments of the first half, but Tiffin's Jordan Johnson was injured and removed from the field on a cart after a 20 minute delay. Johnson gave the fans a thumbs up sign as he was being wheeled off the field and the Laker fans gave the junior DB a big applause. The Lakers took a knee to close the first half following the Johnson injury. GVSU closed its scoring output early in the third quarter as Justin Sherrod raced 55 yards for a TD to give GVSU a 47-7 lead. Tiffin scored two second half TDs against the GVSU reserves for the final margin.

"We were really pleased with the focus and effort of our football team tonight," said Martin. "We have the meat of our schedule coming up the next five weeks and we did not look past Tiffin in preparation for next week's game at Hillsdale," added Martin.

Smolen touched the ball nine times and scored a career-high four TDs. He tallied 182 yards of total offense (67 rushing/90 receiving/25 returns). Smolen is the first Laker to score four TDs in a game since Brad Iciek rushed for four TDs vs. Central Washington (2007) and David Kircus caught four TDs vs. C.W. Post (2002). Sherrod rushed for a career-high 191 yards and one TD on 19 carries. Justin also caught one pass and returned two kickoffs for 50 yards en route to a career-high 242 all purpose yards. Carlos Clark rushed for 34 yards on eight carries, while James Berezik toted the ball five times for 31 yards. Iciek completed 9-of-15 passes for 231 yards and two TDs. TD Andrew Lorman caught three passes for a career-high 69 yards, while Koster caught three passes for 44 yards.GVSU rushed the ball 44 times for a season-high 346 yards and passed for another 250 yards.

Redshirt freshmen Mike Cuddeback and Ricky Shorkey led the defense with seven and five tackles, respectively. Fellow freshmen Vince Beachem and Jarrod Cox added five tckles each. GVSU tallied four QB sacks (-22) and nine tackles for loss (-43). The GVSU starting defense yielded 20 yards in five drives. Tiffin was limited to 44 yards rushing for the game and 181 yards of total offense for the game.

Notes...• GVSU is 93-7 in its last 100 games with four National Championships (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006). The Lakers are 114-7 in their last 121 games and 90-3 in its last 93 regular season games.

• The 2009 GVSU senior class is 44-2 with one National Championship and three GLIAC titles. In addition, the 2009 senior class has not lost a regular season game (37-0).

• Grand Valley State has won 48 consecutive regular season games. The Lakers' last regular season loss was 10/23/04 to Northwood (35-14)...Including the last six games of the 2000 season, the Lakers are 60-3 at home, 48-3 in their last 51 road games and 50-4 in all games away from Lubbers Stadium in their last 54.

• The American Football Coaches Association has released 116 polls since the 2001 season and GVSU has been ranked No. 1 79 times, including an AFCA record 36 straight weeks at No. 1. The AFCA started its coaches' poll in 2000 and the Lakers have opened the season as the No. 1 ranked team six times.

• Grand Valley State has been ranked number one in the country in 79 of the last 103 polls since the opening game of the 2002 season. GVSU has finished the year ranked in the top 10 (2001-2, 2002-1, 2003-1, 2004-9, 2005 -1, 2006-1, 2007-4, 2008-4) in eight straight postseason polls. GVSU has been in the top five 100 times and top 10 105 times.

• Grand Valley State has the second longest streak for consecutive games without being shutout at 208 games. The Lakers were last shutout by Ferris State (23-0) in 1992. Valdosta State's 219 games without being shutout is the longest streak.

• Grand Valley State is 78-3 in its last 81 GLIAC games. The Lakers have won a GLIAC record record 45 straight GLIAC games dating back to the 2004 season. GVSU also held the previous record of 29 from 2001 - 2003. The Lakers' last GLIAC loss was a 35-14 decision to Northwood on 10/23/04 at Lubbers Stadium.