Michigan Tech’s Derek Cingel comes down with an interception against Davenport, Saturday, at Sherman Field. (David Archambeau/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — An ugly win is better than a pretty loss.

If the Michigan Tech Huskies didn’t know it before, they sure do now. Tech (4-5, 3-4 GLIAC) needed a victory over visiting Davenport in order to keep its hopes of a winning season alive. The Huskies pulled off a 17-10 win, Saturday at Sherman Field in a game that was anything but easy on the eyes. 

Tech led 7-3 for most of the contest, but with 7:50 to play Davenport quarterback Haiden Majewski completed a short pass to Nate Couturier, who shook a tackle and turned it into a 47-yard touchdown. 

Things didn’t look good for a Tech team that had struggled to score all game. 

“We knew there were seven minutes left, so we knew we had to go back out there and answer it,” Tech offensive coordinator Dan Mettlach said. “Our mentality didn’t change. We remained in attack mode.”

But the offense didn’t need to go back on the field. Instead, Eric Kostreva returned a 93-yard kick and Tech regained the lead, 14-10, after just 7 seconds of being down. 

From there, Tech’s defense was tasked with stopping the Davenport drive, something it had done all game. The Panthers were held to 163 yards of offense and an average of 2.9 yards per play. 

Tech’s defense also had five sacks on the game for a loss of 47 yards.

“The defensive lineman, they penetrated the entire game,” defensive coordinator Bryan Thomas said. “We knew going in that we had a good shot to handle [Davenport] up front and I felt like we controlled the line of scrimmage.” 

This time the Huskies were in dire need of a big play, and they got it from senior defensive back Derek Cingel who picked off Majewski at the Davenport 45, tacking on 12 yards after the interception. 

“The defense was huge,” Mettlach said. “When you lead the whole game and the lead could have been bigger, but instead it is a one-score game. Defense and special teams really boosted our confidence.”

Offensively the Huskies recorded just 147 yards of total offense on 65 plays and completed 3 of 16 third-down conversions.

Their first drive of the game looked promising. The Huskies ate up 9:32 off the clock when freshman quarterback Garrett Young, who made his first career start, took the Tech offense 60 yards down the field. After three rushing attempts fell short, Tech opted to go for it on fourth-and-1 and senior fullback Alex Sherbinow plowed through the defense for a 5-yard gain. But the Huskies were stopped short in the red zone, forcing a kick attempt by Evan Gornick, who missed wide right.

The first quarter ended tied at 0-0, but Tech scored the first points of the game in the second after Goldsworthy recovered a fumble at the Davenport 26-yard line. The Huskies put seven points on the board but didn’t make it easy on themselves. Running back James Henderson took a shot to the end zone, only to have the pass broken up. Then two plays later Tech was forced to go for it on another fourth down. Young threw to the right corner of the end zone, this time connecting with Kevin Kirkland for an 18-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

“Our execution was fine in the first half, but we couldn’t make plays in the second half,” Mettlach said. “Defense bailed us out and special teams bailed us out. There wasn’t a whole lot for us that went right for us in the second half we have a lot to clean up.”

With the victory, Tech can still pull off a winning season, but the Huskies will need to beat Tiffin on the road on Nov. 4, and Ferris State at home on Nov. 11. 

– – –

Davenport 0 3 0 7 — 10

Tech 0 7 0 10 — 17

Second quarter

T — Kevin Kirkland 18-yard pass from Garrett Young (XP good), 7-0, 10:07

D — Jerred McGuire 30-yard goal, 7-3, 0:00

Fourth quarter

D — Nate Couturier 47-yard pass from Haiden Majewski (XP good), 10-7

T — Eric Kostreva 93-yard kick return (XP good), 14-10, 7:38

Total yards

Davenport 163 (121 passing, 42 rushing); Tech 147 (92 passing, 55 rushing)

Passing (completions-attempts-yards-touchdowns-interceptions)

Davenport — Majewski 6-14-86-1-1; Long 4-6-35-0-1; Tech 11-21-92-1-1.

Rushing (attempts-yards-touchdowns)

Davenport — Powers 13-47-0, Gist 8-32-0, Cheatham 2- -5-0, Moore 1- -6-0, Majewski 12- -26-0; Tech — Henderson 26-58-0, Wenzlick 1-11-0, Sherbinow 4-11-0, Young 10- -22-0.

Receiving (catches-yards-touchdowns)

Davenport — Couturier 2-52-1, Powers 4-40-0, Moore 2-14-0, Powers 1-8-0, Mount 1-7-0; Tech — Wenzlick 4-34-0, Ferguson 3-24-0, Kirkland 1-18-1, Falish 2-12-0, Henderson 1-4-0.