Michigan Tech running back Jake Rueff drives through a tackle during a game against Bemidji State Thursday at Kearly Stadium in Houghton. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — What a difference a year can make in the fate of a football team. Last season, the Michigan Tech Huskies forced the Bemidji State Beavers to overtime before falling. Then they needed to overcome a 21-point deficit to earn their first win of the season the following week against South Dakota Mines.

Thursday, the Huskies hosted the Beavers and trailed 17-16 at half time, only to score 21 points over the remaining 30 minutes to earn a 37-17 win at home over the No. 16-ranked team in the country.

The Huskies head on the road this week to face the Hardrockers, and look to not dig themselves a 21-point hole early in the game.

“Obviously, we can’t get in a 21-point hole to start the game, but watching our film back from last year, there’s a bunch of new bodies on the field again from both sides,” said Huskies coach Dan Mettlach. “So, the personnel is going to be different. We just never, ever got into a groove offensively in the first half last year, so our execution on the offensive side needs to be better right from the get go. On the flip side, they threw it all over the place last year, and found some voids in our coverage. We were on our heels from that standpoint the whole time as well.

“So, as a whole, our mentality that we go into the game with the execution of both sides of the football, we need to be better on the road after a two-day trip, coming off of a huge high last Thursday than we were a year ago. The excuse of being on a bus for two days, or going out to a place we’ve never been before, that can’t be in our guys’ heads. Our maturity has to be better in terms of going into the football game, understanding what we need to do, playing our butts off, and then executing at a high level right from the get go, so we don’t get ourselves in a hole like we did last year.”

The good news is that the Huskies have access to weapons they did not have last season. That all starts behind the offensive line, where sophomore quarterback Alex Bueno was extremely impressive in his debut as the Huskies’ starter.

He went 15-of-24 through the air for 188 yards and two touchdowns. On the ground, he was equally impressive, rushing 16 times for 102 yards and one touchdown.

“(He) played within the system,” Mettlach said. “Obviously, he made some plays when things broke down, and those are things that when you’re going into a game, obviously, you’re not scripting that kind of stuff. It’s just reacting to it. So, he gives us that element with his feet and athleticism.”

As impressive as Bueno’s first start was, Mettlach is quick to point out that there is always room for improvement.

“There were some things that, after watching it back with him, we feel like he missed a couple throws,” said Mettlach. “It’s a mechanics thing, and all that stuff comes with reps that he just doesn’t have yet. So, seeing it in a live situation, against competition that’s moving as fast as he is, ‘How fast I need to get my feet set. Where I need to get to on certain drops when we’re moving the pocket in terms of the depth from the line of scrimmage,’ all that stuff will come with it.

“(He) played really well, wasn’t perfect, not ever going to be perfect. But, at the same time, he knows there’s some things that he could have been better at, which is awesome to see. I feel like you have that kind of success, (it’s) easy to pat yourself on the back. He knows there’s some stuff that he left out there that should be fairly easy for him in terms of making those throws, and he’ll get them.”

Equally impressive in limited time was sophomore wide receiver Nic Nora, who accounted for two touchdowns, one on the ground, and another through the air, well, a shovel pass. But Nora rushed the ball three times for 19 yards and a touchdown. He also caught three passes for 28 yards with a touchdown.

“He’s a dynamic kid,” Mettlach said. “When he’s got the ball in his hands, that’s one of our guys that we can count on that can set somebody up, make somebody miss, and take a five-yard gain and turn it into 10, 15, whatever it is. He is that kind of guy.

“At the same time, he’s another one that has not had enough reps, so there’s some base stuff that he did not do well on Thursday night that we need to get cleaned up. It’s kind of the same situation with ‘AB’. The more reps he gets, the more he’s going to understand coverage, where he needs to be on certain routes, and so on. But, he was far from perfect. At the same time, when he got his opportunities, he made the most out of him as well.”

Junior running back Jake Rueff also had a strong season debut. He ran the ball 17 times for 49 yards, and he had a team-high five receptions for 70 yards, including a 47-yard touchdown scamper.

“He got better as the game went on,” said Mettlach. “(He) always runs hard. There was a third down conversion, I’m thinking of where there wasn’t a whole lot there, and he just found the first gap to get us a yard or two to keep us on the field. He did a lot of good things in the receiving game, run game. He was good in protection. He’s a second year starter now. Those are the kind of things that we expect, and the improvement that we expected him to make, again, I think, if you were to ask him, he’s got to start setting stuff up a little bit at the second and third level to where we can make one guy miss, and it’s not just consistently four and five-yard gains, but he’s going to get us a little bit extra. It’ll come.”

Lastly, Mettlach was really happy with how the Huskies’ defense shut down the Beavers’ offense in the second half. They were gashed in the first half for a 25-yard touchdown run, and a 39-yard touchdown run, but nothing else the Beavers tried after that worked as well.

“We needed to get some things tightened up, of course, and we did that, fitting up gaps in their ‘Q’ run game, and so on,” Mettlach said. “The adjustments we made at half time, I felt like were, obviously, very good. Got them out of what they wanted to do, forced them to have to throw the football. Then, we get the big special teams turnover, and are able to go up by multiple scores at that point.

I don’t know that it was so much that we changed a whole lot. It was just getting guys squared up in terms of where we needed to get to, and how we were fitting things.”

Up next

The Huskies hit the road Tuesday for the 15-hour bus ride to Rapid City, South Dakota. They will take on the Hardrockers Thursday, with opening kickoff set for 8 p.m.