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The 14th-ranked Grand Valley State Laker football team claimed a 24-17 victory over Saginaw Valley State Saturday afternoon before an overflow crowd of 12,591 at Lubbers Stadium. GVSU improves to 9-2 overall and 8-2 in GLIAC action and will now await word on Sunday if the 2015 season will continue with a bid to the NCAA DII Playoffs. The victory upped GVSU's all-time advantage to 34-11 in the series, including wins in 12-of-the-last-13 games. 

The Lakers started fast, scoring on its first two offensive drives of the game. The defense forced a punt on the Cardinals first possession sophomore QB Bart Williams directed an 8-play, 74-yard drive that took 3:50 off the clock. The big play of the drive was a Williams hook up with freshman WR Nick Dodson that covered  43 yards. Freshman RB Marty Carter toted the ball 12 yards to the SVSU one and senior RB Kirk Spencer hit paydirt. Junior PK Joel Schipper added the PAT and GVSU led 7-0. The Laker defense forced another punt and Williams drove GVSU 75 yards in five plays for a touchdown. Spencer opened the drive with a 27 yard run and B. Williams hit WR Jamie Potts with a 33 yard SportsCenter highlight reel catch for a TD. Schipper added his second PAT and GVSU led 14-0 with almost four minutes left in the first quarter. 

Following a Saginaw Valley State field goal the Lakers were driving for another score and faced a second and goal from the Cardinal 5 yard line. However, a Williams pass was picked off and returned 97 yards for a TD to cut the Laker lead to 14-10 after 30 minutes of action. GVSU drove 56 yards in seven plays on its opening possession of the second half for a field goal. Spencer toted the ball five times for 12 yards and B. Williams hit junior WR Matt Williams with a 45 yard pass and catch to set up the field goal and a 17-10 lead. GVSU began its next drive on its own 2 yard line and drove 98 yards in 10 plays for a TD. The drive took 4:47 off the clock and consisted of chunk plays. B. Williams hit M. Williams with a 33 yard completion, followed by a Spencer 15 yard run, an 18 yard completion to Potts and a 15 yard TD pass to M. Williams to conclude the scoring drive and a 24-10 lead. SVSU answered with a TD drive of its own to pull within seven (24-17) and set up a tense final eight minutes. B. Williams was picked off and the Cardinals drove 32 yards in eight plays to set up a fourth down play at the GVSU 45 yard line. The Laker defense forced an incompletion and the offense picked up three first downs to kill the clock and seal the 24-17 win. 

The Laker offense tallied 463 total yards, 164 on the ground and 299 through the air. Spencer rushed for 137 yards on a career-high 29 carries, while B. Williams completed 15-of-27 passes for 299 yards and two TDs. M. Williams hauled in four catches for 106 yards and one TD, while Potts caught four passes for 104 yards and a TD. Freshman WR Nick Dodson caught four passes for 61 yards. LB David Talley led the team squad with 10 tackles, while sophomore LB Collin Schlosser chipped in seven tackles, 2.0 QB sacks (-7) and 2.0 TFL (-7). Sophomore Keane Belcher recorded three tackles and 2.5 TFL (-3) and fellow sophomore Tre Walton added two stops and interception and three pass break ups. Junior Donte Carey notched three tackles and an interception as the Laker defense limited SVSU to just 77 rushing yards. 

Notes...Potts is third in all-time receptions with 163 and second in reception yards (2,896) and receiving TDs with 35...Spencer moved into seventh in all-time rushing yards with 2,740, passing Eric Lynch (2,718). Spencer moved into third in all-purpose yards with 4,876, passing Brent Lesniak (4,747) and James Berezik (4,849)...B. Williams tied Brad Iciek for fourth in single-season TD passes list with 35 and he became the sixth QB in Laker history to go over the 3,000 yard passing mark (3,122)...Junior PK Joel Schipper moved into fourth in all-time scoring with 257 points.