Box Score ALLENDALE – It falls on this 2014 version of the Grand Valley State Lakers as they approach the crossroads of a season gone awry to regroup and rally once again.

For the fifth time this year the Lakers played a ranked opponent and for the fifth time they were defeated. Ashland University built a 20-0 first-half lead on the way to a 37-14 win Saturday night at Lubbers Stadium.

At 4-5 with two games remaining the season, a .500 finish is out of the mix for Grand Valley. It's going to either be a winning season, or one of those other kinds of seasons. It is left or right at the crossroads.

"We have to find a way, we've got to because losing seasons are unacceptable here," said head coach Matt Mitchell, who is 43-16 as a head coach and never expected to be in this situation.

"We got two games in front of us here to have a winning season, so we've got to come back home here and play Tiffin on Senior Day next week. We need to go 2-0. We have got to find a way to go 2-0 to go 6-5."

This version of the Lakers started 0-3 and rallied for three consecutive wins, then lost to Michigan Tech only to rally again for a win last week at Findlay.

And here they are again, looking up from under .500 and looking at running out of games to get things right.

"We got beat, and beat badly," Mitchell said. "Credit Ashland for playing great, but we played poorly."

Credit must go to Ashland University, which offered up a great game plan and executed it with 526 yards in total offense. The Eagles were 14-of-22 on third down, and helped by the Lakers losing 70 yards in penalties.  In addition, Ashland had the ball for over 35 minutes of the game and 55 plays in the first half. They simply played keep away.

To make matters worse for the Lakers, Chris Robinson, who last week rushed for the most yards ever for a Grand Valley back in a single game (261), left the game early injured.

Wide receiver Jamie Potts had a career-high in pass receiving yards with 172 on nine receptions, and linebacker Deonte' Hurst had 15 tackles. It was hard to find any more positives than those for the Lakers, however.

In essence, it was just that kind of night.

"We had no spark in the first half, no play besides made one by Jamie Potts, to get us going," Mitchell said. "We couldn't get them off the field either. We couldn't generate offense and the defense was fighting, but on the field way too much."

And so it goes to the final two games.

The seniors will play their final home game next week at 4 p.m. against Tiffin University, and the final game of the season is at rival Saginaw Valley State.

"We'll play for the winning season," Mitchell said. "That's where we are at."