The 7th-ranked Grand Valley State football team claimed a 45-27 GLIAC road win at Wayne State Saturday night. GVSU improves to 5-1 overall and 5-0 in GLIAC action. The Lakers will stay on the road for a non-conference matchup at Truman State next Saturday (Oct. 14).
 

Good road win by the lakers! Everyone who dressed for the game played. Valuable experience for our back-ups.

— Matt Mitchell (@CoachMitchGVSU) October 8, 2017

The final margin was much closer than the actual dominance that Grand Valley State showed through three quarters of action. The Lakers scored 24 second quarter points and opened the second half with back-to-back touchdowns to build a 45-7 lead. The Lakers cleared its roster of players that made the trip and cruised to the win. 

"That was a dominant GLIAC road win and we were able to get everyone that made the trip a lot of snaps," said head coach Matt Mitchell. 

Wayne State dominated the time of possession in the opening quarter, holding the ball for 12:45, however, in the long run it meant very little. The Warriors were forced to punt and the snap sailed over the head of the punter and GVSU took over on the WSU 9-yard line. Junior RB Marty Carter scored on a cutback 5-yard TD run on the second play with 12 ticks left in the first quarter and the scoring barrage was on. 

The Laker defense began to warm up and forced a punt that senior WR Brandon Bean returned 51 yards to the WSU 38 yard line. Junior QB Bart Williams hit junior WR Nick Dodson with a 29 yard TD pass on the second play again and Avery Echols added his second PAT for a 14-0 GVSU lead. 

"We were able to generate chunck play after chunk play when we got rolling and I was impressed with how we continued to move the ball when our first unit was in the game. Defensively, our starting unti gave up seven points and yielded under 200 yards when they were in the game," added Mitchell. 

Wayne State downed a punt at the GVSU three yard line with 9:50 left in the second quarter and was looking to get back in the game, but on the first play from scrimmage Carter raced 97 yards for a touchdown and following the PAT GVSU led 21-0. The jaunt was the longest in GVSU football history and tied the GLIAC record for longest TD run in league history. 

The GVSU defense continued to dominate and the offense kept rolling as Echols ended a 51 yard drive with a 20 yard field goal to up the GVSU lead to 24-0 with 3:09 left in the first half. GVSU had one last chance with under two minutes left in the first half and they took advantage with a 5-play, 65-yard drive that included a 16 yard run by sophomore RB Bryce Young-Walls, back-to-back rushes by Carter that went for three and 22 yards, followed by a Williams to Jalen Bryant 24 yard completion to the Warrior 6 yard line. Williams then his sophomore WR Austin Paritee with a 6 yard TD pass with four seconds left in the half and Echols added the PAT for a 31-0 GVSU halftime lead. 

Sophomore WR Brandon Wadley took the second half kickoff bck 48 yards to the WSU 35 yard line and a 29-yard TD pass from Williams to TE Nick Keizer ended a 5-play, 35-yard scoring drive that took 1:39 off the clock. The Echols PAT upped the GVSU lead to 38-0 with 13:11 left in the third quarter. 

Following a Wayne State TD late in the third quarter, Carter went 68 yards for his third rushing TD of the night and in the process he tied former Laker RB great Michael Tennessee for second in all-time rushing yards with 3,515. James Berezik is the all-time leader with 3,630 yards. Echols' PAT gave GVSU a 45-7 lead. 

The Laker offense produced 427 total yards, despite the starting offensive unit not playing in the fourth quarter. GVSU rushed for 285 yards on just 27 attempts for a per rush average of 10.6 yards. In terms of total offense, the Lakers averaged and amazing 10.4 yards per play on just 41 total plays. Carter rushed for 218 yards and three TDs on 11 carries (19.8 ypc) and caught two passes for 22 yards. Williams connected on 10-of-13 passes for 142 yards and three TDs, while Bean caught three passes for 23 yards and returned a punt 51 yards. Keizer caught two passes for 38 yards and a TD and Nick Dodson hauled in one pass for 29 yards and a TD. 

Grand Valley State's starting defense limited Wayne State to 197 yards and seven points, recording six tackles for loss (-26) and three QB sacks (-20). Senior LB Collin Schlosser led the way with 13 tackles and a TFL (-1), while fellow LB Isaiah Nkansah added seven stops. DT Demetrius Farmer, LB Garrett Pougnet and DE Michael Pettis each recorded a QB sack. DB Eric Plate , S Jacob Studdard and LB Tyler Bradfield each tallied six tackles. 

Laker Bytes...
Marty Carter passed Hall of Famer Reggie Spearmon (3,467) and is now tied with Michael Tennessee for second on the all-time rushing list with 3,515 yards...Carter also moved into fourth in career rushing TDs with 34.

Bart Williams, who is 29-5 as a starting QB, has passed for 8,774 yards and 94 passing TDs. His yardage total is third, while his passing TD total is fourth. Former Laker QB great Brad Iciek is third in passing TDs with 98. 

Collin Schlosser now has 252 career tackles.