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College Football: MTU visits Wayne State for season’s final road trip

HOUGHTON — The Michigan Tech Huskies hit the road one last time this football season as they travel south to the the Detroit area to face the Wayne State Warriors.

The Huskies (4-4, 2-4 GLIAC) are looking forward to putting last weeks 52-0 loss to Ferris State far behind them. Kickoff is 1 p.m. Saturday.

“Ferris State came in and executed well. I have to give them credit as they did what they needed to do,”said MTU head coach Steve Olson. “However, we are moving forward to the next game.”

If their was one silver lining behind last week’s shutout, it was the play of back-up quarterback Steele Fortress. Olson said he was please with the effort shown by Fortress given the fact that he was going up against the No. 2 team in the nation. It was his first start as he replaced an injured Will Ark. Ark went down with an injury halfway through MTU’s game against Ashland on Oct. 26.

“For the most part he (Steele) held his composure and did a pretty good job,” Olson said. “He did an adequate job of managing the game against a very good (Ferris State) defensive team. He manufactured a couple of good drives in the course of the game. We just did not finish them off. “

The Huskies will face a Wayne State team that has won three in a row. Saturdays meeting will be the 30th time the two teams have met. The Warriors (6-3, 5-1) lead the all-time series 18-11.

A year ago the Michigan Tech downed the Warriors 23-20 at Sherman Field.

“Wayne State is playing very good football,” Olson said. “They are running the ball effectively and defensively they are aggressive as they look to attack you in a variety of ways.”

Wayne State is third in the GLIAC in total offense and second in rushing yards. They average 394.7 yards of total offense per game with 218.4 of them coming on the ground per game.

They are led by quarterback Dakota Kupp has thrown for 1,128 yards and eight touchdowns. On the ground, the Warriors look to Deiontae Nicholas to carry the ball. He leads the team in rushing as he has 593 yards on 98 carries. In the air Darece Roberson is the Warriors leading receiver. He has 25 catches for 564 yards and six touchdowns on the season.

“I think it will be a similar match up like last year,” Olson said. “We will need some big games from Ben Hartley, Jake Wenzlick and Jordan Janssen. We will need them to create some space and openings for us. This will give us the opportunity to throw the ball in those windows.”

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