GVSU Postgame
GVSU Football Highlights
#7 Grand Valley State claimed an impressive 56-14 victory over West Texas A&M Thursday night at Lubbers Stadium before a crowd of 11,037. The Lakers will hit the road for a non-league game at Ashland next Saturday (Sept. 12) at 7 p.m.
The game started with the Laker defense forcing a three-and-out and the Laker offense taking over on its own 34 yard line following a WTAM punt. However, on the Lakers' first play from scrimmage a pass was batted down and ruled a lateral that was picked up by the Buffaloes and returned 14 yards for a touchdown. The point after attempt was good and West Texas A&M led 7-0 less than two minutes into the game. GVSU managed one first down on its next drive before punting, but the Laker defense continued to shine and forced another WTAM punt.
GVSU went to the run game on its third possession and sophomore RB
Kellen Russell-Dixon provided all of the rushing yards, including a 67 yard touchdown run that concluded a 4-play, 87-yard scoring drive.
Mathew Bacik added the first of his eight PATs to tie the game 7-7. The GVSU defense forced punts on the Buffaloes first four drives and the offense started to click. GVSU drove 52 yards in seven plays for a touchdown as sophomore QB
Andrew Schuster hit TE
Evan Furtney with perfectly executed play to give the Lakers their first lead of the game, 14-7.
Grand Valley State then used back-to-back interceptions and stop on a fake punt to score 21 second quarter points. Senior safety
Josh Anderson intercepted a pass, and the Lakers then drove 71 yards in six plays for a score. Schuster hit WR
Kellen Reed with a 43 yard TD pass to finish the drive. Safety
Troy Temple notched the first of his two interceptions to thwart a Buffaloe drive. The Lakers drove 59 yards in six plays as Russell-Dixon finished the drive with his second rushing touchdown of the night, this one covering 13 yards. WTAM attempted a fake punt with under a minute to play in the first half and LB
Isaac Poot sniffed it out to record the tackle short of the line to gain. Schuster hit read with a short pass that he turned into a 14 yard touchdown and GVSU led 35-7 at the half.
West Texas A&M drove 62 yards in 11 plays to open the second half, but Temple picked off his second pass of the game in the endzone to put an end to the threat. The GVSU offense needed just two plays as Schuster his Reed with a screen pass that he took 82 yards to paydirt.
The Laker defense got another stop on downs and Schuster hit WR
Corey Sandolph with a perfectly thrown go route on first down that picked up 53 yards, followed by a seven-yard fade to WR
Jake Vermaas for a touchdown.
CB Deonte Pipped picked off the Lakers' fourth pass of the game and the offense ran the ball 11 consecutive times for 78 yards as RB
ArJon Thompson finished the drive with a one yard TD run.
The Laker defense was spectacular, picking off four passes and getting two fourth down stops. The high powered Buffaloe offense managed 314 total yards, 101 on the ground and 213 through the air on 23-of-45 passing. Temple led the defense with nine tackles and two interceptions, while fellow safety,
Tony Roberts, added seven tackles. LB
Torian Wyatt chipped in six tackles and
Benji Allen made six total tackles, three of which came on special teams. Freshman DE
Tyler Maynard notched three tackles, 2.0 QB sacks and 2.0 TFL.
Schuster completed 10-of-15 passes for 283 yards and five touchdowns, while Russell-Dixon toted the ball 19 times for 144 yards and two TDs. Reed hauled in four passes, three of which went for TDs, for 155 yards. Vermaas caught three passes for 30 yards, while Sandolph tallied two catches for 66 yards and Furtney added two for 45 yards.
Punter
Evan Sundermann averaged 45.3 yards on three punts.
