The No. 10 Grand Valley State University football team (3-1) hosted the Davenport Panthers (2-2) Saturday for Family Day. The Lakers dominated both sides of the ball, running away with the game in the second half, 37-14.
Davenport got the ball first, and went to work controlling the line-of-scrimmage with their run-game. Davenport’s quarterback had a few solid runs to get the Panthers into a scoring position, and they called a jet-sweep option-play, which resulted in the first score of the game for Davenport.
The Lakers responded almost immediately, with redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Schuster passing a couple multi-level throws to sophomore receiver Sean Byrd. Their second connection, a 28-yard deep-ball, gave GVSU its first touchdown, tying the game 7-7.
Following the five-play drive for the Lakers, the Panthers continued running the ball, which got them into Laker territory. On third down, sophomore defensive lineman Jibriel Conde had an enormous tackle-for-loss, forcing the Panthers to punt on fourth down.
GVSU slowly drove down the field with short pass plays and solid run plays in their second drive. However, the first play of the second quarter was a trick-play, as junior receiver Kellen Reed took an end-around 29 yards to the house, giving the Lakers a 14-7 lead.
After a sack on second down by junior defensive end Jamari Buddin, the Lakers forced a three-and-out and a punt. Davenport responded defensively, as they forced a three-and-out of their own after a near interception.
In the mid-to-late second quarter, the Lakers controlled the line-of-scrimmage with four runs for over 10 yards. Sophomore running back Kenneth Jones had three runs of over 10 yards, and helped the Lakers get into the red zone. Then, sophomore quarterback Brady Drogosh kept the ball on a read-option play for 17 yards, giving the Lakers a 21-7 lead. However, Davenport responded on their first offensive play after the Lakers’ touchdown with a touchdown of their own: a 75-yard passing play that put the score at 21-14.
Each team stalled after getting near the 50-yard line, keeping the halftime score at 21-14. The Lakers totaled 179 rushing yards and 70 passing yards, while Davenport held similar numbers with 142 rushing yards and 105 passing yards. GVSU used three quarterbacks in the rushing attack while Schuster was the only one to pass the ball. Defensively, senior linebacker Anthony Cardamone led the team with six tackles and sophomore defensive lineman Khamani Potts totaled 0.5 a sack, along with Buddin.
In an electric start to the second half, Reed took the opening kickoff 71 yards into the Panthers’ red zone. From there, Drogosh kept a read-option run to score a six-yard touchdown, extending the Lakers’ lead to 28-14. A forced three-and-out led to a bad snap by Davenport’s long-snapper, extending the Lakers’ lead to 30-14.
The rest of the third quarter had both teams struggling to find points, with defenses stepped up. Toward the end of the third quarter, Drogosh had a pass batted at the line-of-scrimmage, which was intercepted by a Panther defensive lineman, giving Davenport a great field position. GVSU’s defense rose to the occasion, as they shut down the Panthers on fourth-down, giving the Lakers the ball at their 14-yard line.
Both teams became stagnant offensively as defenses started to step up. The Lakers’ defense got multiple fourth-down stops and controlled the time-of-possession with their running game. In a dominant, defensive second-half performance and late 12-yard touchdown run from Drogosh, the Lakers ended the game 37-14.
Head coach Scott Wooster was proud of the Lakers’ defensive effort, which only allowed 15-passing yards in the last two-and-a-half quarters of play, and emphasized the importance of rotating players.
“Everybody eats and if you’re playing at a championship level, you’re gonna have opportunities,” Wooster said. “You take the defensive side of the ball and you have eight-to-nine defensive lineman and six-to-seven linebackers. It’s tough to wear us down.”
Cardamone credited his defensive work in practice the last few weeks to the team’s dominant defensive performance.
“Our defensive backs went to work, our defensive line got pressure and we had a great game plan called,” Cardamone said.
The Lakers will next take the field in Marquette to face Northern Michigan University (0-5) Saturday at 7 p.m.
