Oct. 17, 2010

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Allendale, Mich. - No. 1 ranked Grand Valley State scored 38 of the final 41 points over the final 2 1/2 quarters en route to a 57-23 victory over Lake Erie College Saturday (Oct. 16) night at Lubbers Stadium. Grand Valley State, which improves to 7-0 overall and 6-0 in GLIAC action, will hit the road for GLIAC matchup at West Michigan rival Ferris State next Saturday (Oct. 23). GVSU first-year head coach Matt Mitchell improved to 7-0 and becomes the first Grand Valley State head football coach to win his first seven games.

Grand Valley State scored on its opening possession of the game for the seventh straight game, driving 66 yards in five plays as senior QB Kyle McMahon his junior WR Greg Gay with a 29 yard TD pass. The drive took just 1:37 off the clock and Luke Briggs added the PAT for a 7-0 Laker advantage. After trading punts, Lake Erie College got on the board with a 38 yard field goal by Sam Marcotte. The Storm drove 52 yards in six plays for the score. The Lakers then sandwhiched a pair of TD's around a LEC field goal in the opnening quarter. Gay hauled in a 49 yard TD reception at the 6:10 mark, followed a another McMahon TD pass to Gay, this one covering 20 yards. GVSU missed back-to-back PATs for a 19-6 lead. However, the Storm scored 14 straight points to in the second stanza to take a 20-19 lead with 7:05 left in the half. The Lakers answered back and senior RB Justin Sherrod concluded an 8-play, 83-yard drive with a 33 yard TD run. Sherrod added the two-point conversion run to give GVSU the lead for good (27-20). Lake Erie College's Sam Marcotte converted his third field goal of the opening half to pull the Storm within four points (27-23).

"I know we did not come out ready to play defensively in the first half and that is on me," said first-year head coach Matt Mitchell. "We did a poor job in all facets of our defense, but we did regroup at the half and kept them off the scoreboard in the final 30 minutes. I thought we played faster and we were able to force three turnovers in the second half," added Mitchell.

Freshman safety Erik Thompson picked off LEC QB Sean Bedevelsky on the second play of the second half and the Laker offense was in motion. Thompson's 16 yard return set up a McMahon three yard TD run to give GVSU a 34-23 lead. After trading punts, McMahon drove the Lakers 62 yards in eight plays for a score. Sherrod hauled in a 12 yard TD pass from McMahon and Luke Briggs added the PAT for a 41-23 lead. Sophomore RB Norman Shufford joined the scoring frenzy as he scored on a 10 yard TD run to culminate an 8-play, 78-yard drive that took 3:28. Briggs added a 28 yard field goal and freshman QB Heath Parling finished the scoring with a 5 yard TD run.

"Lake Erie College is a good football team and they showed that tonight," said Mitchell.

GVSU tallied 519 yards of total offense, including 216 via the ground and 303 through the air. Sherrod led the ground game with 118 yards and a TD on just 11 carries. Shuford added 29 yards and a TD on seven carries. McMahon completed 15-of-31 passes for 265 yards and four TDs, while Parling completed 3-of-5 passes for 38 yards. Gay led the receiving corps with eight catches for 137 yards and three TDs. Sherrod added 68 receiving yards on five catches. Senior WR Ryan Bass caught one pass for 31 yards and went over the 1,000-yard receiving mark with that catch. Sophomore Chris Crawford tallied 40 yards on three punt returns and 59 yards on two kickoff returns. Sherrod notched 186 all-purpose yards, followed by Gay (144) and Crawford (112).

Junior Zach Breen led the defense with 10 tackles and two TFL (-13), while Justin Victor added 10 stops and 1.5 TFL (-3). Safety Matt Bakker notched seven tackles and returned an interception 87 yards. GVSU picked off two passes and recovered two fumbles.