Few teams could walk away from a 57-23 victory with anything other than a sense of satisfaction.

The Grand Valley State University football team, however, is not one of those squads.

It would have been tough to tell from an outsider’s perspective whether the Lakers had won or lost Saturday night by the sternness of GVSU head coach Matt Mitchell in the post-game press conference. After yielding 494 yards of total offense and 23 first half points to winless Lake Erie College, Mitchell’s speech to his team after the game was one of the longest all season, and his list of needed improvements rivaled that of a busy handyman.

“We are fortunate to win that game,” Mitchell said. “We made some plays down the stretch in the second half, but if we’re fat and happy coming out of that one, then we’re not progressing. It’s disappointing because I felt like we took a little bit of a step back. I thought we we’re progressing and were going to come out and be able to get some stops and do some things. Obviously, we didn’t.”

No. 1 GVSU (7-0, 6-0 GLIAC) struggled in every facet of the game at one point or another during Saturday’s contest, which allowed for the Storm to momentarily take a 20-19 lead in second quarter and to trail only 27-23 at halftime.

The Lakers’ defense surrendered 337 yards of total offense to Lake Erie’s option scheme in the first half, giving quarterback Sean Bedevelsky plenty of time in the pocket to dissect the GVSU defense. The Storm controlled the game in the first half – they had the ball for five more minutes than the Lakers – and were helped by several missed tackles.

“I was saying it all week, obviously my players and our program wasn’t listening: They have a good offense,” Mitchell said. “That quarterback is good. He’s a good player. When we weren’t in the right spots and weren’t doing what we were supposed to do, he ate us up at times. It’s not like this was an anomaly with their offense.”

Special teams continue to be problematic as GVSU missed three extra points and struggled at times on kick coverage.

“We’re missing extra points,” Mitchell said. “Kickoff team wasn’t real great … Our coverage teams I don’t think had a very good night, either – some things to work on there.”

All negatives aside, more than a few bright spots shone through for the Lakers.

Redshirt freshman strong safety Erik Thompson and senior free safety Matt Bakker each recorded interceptions in the second half. Thompson’s pick on Lake Erie’s first drive of the second half started the rally by the defense, while Bakker weaved through traffic to return his interception 87 yards only to run out of steam and get caught from behind at Lake Erie’s 12-yard line.

“I was running out of gas at the end there,” Bakker said. “I was just like, ‘Don’t get caught from behind. Don’t get caught from behind.’ And, sure enough, I got caught from behind. The guys will probably give me a hard time about that one.”

The Lakers shutout Lake Erie in the second half and held the Storm to only 157 yards of offense while forcing four turnovers.

Senior quarterback Kyle McMahon passed for 265 yards and four touchdowns – three of which found the arms of junior wide receiver Greg Gay – and made a move to avoid a Lake Erie defender on his three-yard touchdown scamper with 12:56 to play in the third quarter.

“Coach has got a lot of confidence in me catching the balls over the middle,” said Gay, who finished with eight catches for 137 yards to go along with the three scores. “If I can keep doing that, I guess balls keep coming my way.”

The one-two running back punch of senior Justin Sherrod and Norman Shuford continues to be tough to corral for opposing defenses. Sherrod ripped off a 33-yard, second-quarter touchdown run down the left sideline and also had 12-yard receiving touchdown in the third quarter. He finished with 118 yards on 11 carries, while Shuford added 29 yards on seven attempts.

Senior wide receiver Ryan Bass became the 29th player in GVSU history to total 1,000 yards receiving with his 31-yard grab shortly before halftime.

Even with the landslide victory thanks to the turnaround, the Lakers cannot expect similar second-half results against a better team. Small mistakes – missed tackles, missed receivers, missed extra points – do not mean much against Lake Erie, but could cost GVSU the game in the playoffs, Mitchell said.

“We didn’t play our best football in all three phases and we came away with a 57-23 win,” he said. “Part of me says if we can learn some lessons from that, then it’s worth it. But, if we don’t learn any lessons from that in terms of tackling and execution on both sides of the ball, that’s kind of a wasted victory because that’s how you are going to get better.”

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