HOUGHTON — The Michigan Tech Huskies will close out their 2019 football campaign this weekend at home against Northwood University. With a win, MTU (4-5, 2-5 GLIAC) will finish the season at the .500 mark — a step above last years 4-6 record. The Huskies enter the final week of the year on a three-game losing skid.

Their most recent defeat was a 35-14 loss to Wayne State a week ago in Detroit — a game head coach Steve Olson thought his team should have won.

“On paper, we are two pretty evenly-matched football teams,” Olson said. “In fact, in that game we held the ball longer and had more (passing) yards. However, we were not able to be consistent, sustain and finish drives. Wayne State was able to take care of the little things and that made the difference.”

Olson said while many of these players played key roles in their careers as Huskies, he is proud of the time and effort that all of them have put in on field and in the classroom.

“Every player on the team has value,” he said. “I’m excited to have them go out and represent the football team and have a chance to play in front of their parents. So many of these players are leaving with great degrees. They will become leaders in their communities and workplaces and think that leadership development is what makes us unique here at Michigan Tech.”

The Huskies will face a familiar foe in the Northwood Timberwolves (1-9, 1-6 GLIAC). It will be the 46th time these two teams have met. The Timberwolves lead the series 24-21. This includes a close 26-23 victory a year ago in Houghton.

“Northwood plays hard every game and they are going to come in here and want win this football game,” Olson said. “We are going to have to match their intensity and surpass it. Offensively, they like to play off of play- action. They have some unique motions which make it difficult to defend. Defensively they will match up man-to-man against us and I suspect they put a lot of guys in the middle to try and stop our running game.”

The Timberwolves are lead by quarterback Nate Gomez. He is 38 of 82 in passing and thrown for 568 total yards. On ground Cashual Goldsmith is one of their leading rushers. He averages 46.4 yards per game and has three touchdowns on the season. In the air, Noah Koenigsknecht has a team high 23 receptions for 250 yards at the wide receiver position. Alex Spicuzzi and Christian Martinez each have two touchdown receptions as well for the Timberwolves.

On the other side of the field the Huskies offenseive charge had been led by a number of players. A week ago at Wayne State, MTU had four players with at least six rushing attempts. As well 10 players had one or more pass completions in that game.

Saturday’s contest could also see a 12-year old defensive record be broken. The Huskies have 28 sacks on the season and just need three more to break the all-time record of 30 sacks which was set in 2007. The Huskies are currently ranked second in the GLIAC in sacks. They are just one behind Ferris State. Junior Nate LaJoie is the Huskies leader with 7.5 sacks.

Kickoff for the Huskies final game is set for 1 p.m. at Sherman Field at Kearly Stadium.

The Huskies will say goodbye to 18 seniors on Saturday for Senior Day. They include: Nels Anderson, Jeremy Bell, Michael Betz, Logan Brunette, Jimmie Cannon, Xavier Ciardo, Jeff Ford, Evan Gornick, Ben Hartley, Mattias Hoehnen, Max Maloney, Brandon Oja, Marshael Ryan Travis Tidwell, Tyler Urban, Glacier Wallington, Jacob Wenzlick, and Garrett Young.