Postgame Interview

Game Highlights

#4 Grand Valley State opened the 2024 campaign with an impressive 58-0 victory over Central State Thursday evening at Lubbers Stadium before a crowd of 13,678. GVSU has now won 20-of-its-last-23 season opening games and the 58-0 shutout is is the third largest margin of victory overall. The Lakers will be on the road Saturday (Sept. 14) at Colorado State-Pueblo. 

GVSU started fast, scoring touchdown on its first four possessions. Sophomore Khalil Eichelberger finished an 8-play, 54-yard drive with a seven yard touchdown run and redshirt freshman Mathew Bacik kicked the first of his seven extra points. Redshirt freshman Kenneth Jones concluded a 6-play, 60-yard drive with and eight yard TD run, while senior QB Avery Moore hit junior wide receiver Jordan Johnson with a 13-yard touchdown pass after sophomore running back Derrick Woods blocked a Central State punt. Junior running back David Holloman finished a 4-play, 58-yard touchdown drive with an eight yard TD run at the 14:56 mark of the second quarter to give GVSU a 27-0 lead. Bacik drilled a 46 yard field goal, the first of his career, to give the Lakers a 30-0 halftime lead. 

Senior safety Ian Kennelly picked off a Central State pass on the first possession of the second half and Eichelberger capped a 7-play, 40-yard scoring drive with two yard touchdown run. Woods scored on runs of 64 and 44 yards, and redshirt freshman Paschal Jolman closed the scoring with a 25 yard touchdown run, the first of his career. 

GVSU tallied 667 total yards, including 546 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on 56 carries. The 546 rushing yards ranks second all-time (549 vs. Findlay, 1974) in GVSU football history. Three different Lakers hit the 100-yard rushing mark (Eichelberger 18-120, 2 TD; Jones 11-116, 1 TD; Woods 4-108, 2 TD), the first time that feat has been accomplished in a single game in GVSU football history. Jolman added 84 yards and a TD on four carries and Moore chipped in 54 yards on nine carries. Moore also completed 8-of-12 passes for 109 and one touchdown. Nine different receivers caught a pass.   

The GVSU defense limited Central State to 95 yards of total offense, 60 on the ground and 35 through the air. In addition, the Lakers recorded 12.0 tackles for loss (-43) and two QB sacks (-17). Junior linebacker Anthony Cardamone tallied three tackles, 2.5 TFL (-11) and 1.0 QB sacks (-8). Nine different Lakers recorded a tackle for loss. Redshirt freshmen Torian Wyatt and Elijah Baker led the defense with four stops each. Wyatt added a tackle for loss (-6) and Backer chipped in 1.5 TFL (-6) and forced a fumble.