Michigan Tech freshman wide receiver Darius Willis (2) celebrates his touchdown with junior receiver Jordan Janssen (10) against Ferris State on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021, in Houghton, Mich. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)
While they aren’t vying for playoff contention, the Michigan Tech Huskies are playing their best ball of the season.
The team will have a chance to stamp the season out with a win. But it won’t be automatic.
The Huskies (5-4, 4-2) face Saginaw Valley State (7-3, 4-2) in a GLIAC matchup in the season finale at 1 p.m. Saturday.
It’s a chance for the team’s 11 seniors to cement its legacy in an unprecedented time in the Huskies football program. The seniors helped the football program maintain its culture and standards, and integrate the freshmen class despite having the 2020 season wiped away by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Saturday’s winner will finish third place in the conference, or by way of miracle if Davenport (3-7) upsets No. 5 Grand Valley State, ties for second.
“It means you have a chance to be 5-2 football team and sole possession of third place in your league,” Huskies head coach Steve Olson said. “It means that you get to be a 6-4 football team (overall) when the season is all wrapped up, instead of a 5-5 team. And just at the end of the day, it means just a tremendous amount for the seniors, those kids that work really hard for this program and for themselves to get better. It means a lot to them. So we’re looking forward to getting after it and playing a really good game and get that W.”
Michigan Tech is coming off a 34-0 win against Northwood last week. The Huskies played a four-quarter game, scoring in each quarter with the offense, defense and special teams. Freshman kicker Drew Wyble converted two field goals and sophomore defensive back Michael Bates returned an interception 100 yards in the fourth quarter.
“That was a really nice game. I thought we came out and played very well offensively and defensively,” Olson said. “Very happy about that and nice to get a shutout. For the kids, they worked awfully hard to get better and stuff like that. It was really good to score the points that we did and happy with our run production and what we were able to do in the passing game as well.”
The Cardinals beat Northern Michigan 33-21 last week in their home finale. They overcame a roller coaster second quarter in which the Wildcats answered a 6-0 deficit with 21 straight points. SVSU made it a 21-13 game at halftime and outscored NMU 20-0 in the second half to close out the win.
SVSU’s losses have come to opponents with a combined 26-2 record. The Cardinals lost to Bowie State (9-1), Ferris State (9-0) and Grand Valley State (8-1).
Saginaw Valley enters Houghton with an offense that picked up a lot of momentum last week. The Cardinals had 28 first downs against the Wildcats and were 6 of 14 (43%) on third downs. The Cardinals racked up 428 yards of total offense.