Sweet 16
Huskies football tops Northern Michigan for another Miner’s Cup
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HOUGHTON -- The No. 14 Michigan Tech Huskies football team had one goal in mind, not have a letdown after defeating the Grand Valley State Lakers two weeks ago at Kearly Stadium. Saturday, the Huskies gave up some late scores and yardage, but in the end, they earned a 56-33 win over the visiting Northern Michigan Wildcats.
With the win, the Huskies won their 16th straight over the Wildcats, claiming another Miner's Cup title.
Huskies coach Dan Mettlach liked some of what he saw from his group, but it lost focus as the game moved along.
"I thought from Monday through Thursday, our heads were in the right spot," he said. "There was not a whole lot of talk, outside of getting the film corrected on Monday, from last weekend’s game. But, the way we showed up defensively today, obviously, we were not over last weekend. Our mentality on that side of the football just wasn’t where it needed to be. I thought we gave up way too many third downs and didn’t tackle. Obviously, they got behind us a couple times. Whether it’s our ones, or our threes that we’re in at the end, we’re running our base stuff. They have to be able to execute that, and not necessarily play against a jersey name or a record, just play Michigan Tech football."
The Huskies struck first on their opening drive when senior running back Jake Rueff scored from six yards out to cap an eight-play, 61-yard drive with 10:54 left in the opening quarter.
Northern Michigan answered right back 2:44 later when Noah Dobert punched one in from four yards out.
Then Michigan Tech's offense started to shine. Two plays into their next drive, junior quarterback Alex Bueno hit freshman wide receiver Abram Larner over the middle for 64 yards and a touchdown. After junior kicker Alex Kucharski's extra point, the Huskies led 14-6.
The Black and Gold struck again on their next possession. During a drive that started on their own 29-yard-line, sophomore quarterback Elliott Larner exploded to the left side and raced 58 yards for a touchdown.
"I thought, offensively, right from the opening kick, we played well, controlled the line of scrimmage, (and the) quarterbacks took advantage of some guys that were running free in the back end," Mettlach said. "Outside of the one that we were late on in the second half (we were good. Abe’s wide open, we just took too long to get the ball in his hands. A lot of that had to do with the backside safety and just didn’t see where he was identification-wise pre-snap. Otherwise, we let it go quicker, but they got us on that one.
Outside of that play, I thought we played well. I got a little bit greedy with the trick play coming out of that media timeout. I thought we could sneak it, sneak a cheap one up there, and it didn’t work out."
After another Dobert score from a yard out, the Huskies answered again at the end of the first half, when Bueno hit Abram Larner on a Hail Mary throw on the last play. When Larner appeared to be about to be stopped, he lateraled to junior wide receiver Bryce Kurncz, who ran it in to put the Huskies up 35-12 at the break.
Michigan Tech then pushed their lead to 42-12 when Elliott Larner scored from four yards out to cap a three-play, 85-yard drive that included a 72-yard passing play between Bueno and Abram Larner.
In the fourth quarter, Northern Michigan got one back when Matt Stevens threw his first touchdown pass to Wilson Ptacek just 52 seconds in.
Bueno answered by hitting Abram Larner on the left side, and the Huskies led 49-20 at that point.
The Wildcats scored on consecutive drives to cut the lead down to 49-33 as Stevens ran one in from a yard out on the first score, and Noah Hoffman ran one in from three yards out.
Michigan Tech wasn't finished, however. Junior quarterback Robert Lalain hit junior wide receiver Jaxon Lippert from 15 yards out to seal the win. The drive covered 44 yards on five plays.
Bueno finished 10-of-13 through the air for 268 yards and three touchdowns. On the ground, he ran six ties for 32 yards. His target of choice was Abram Larner, who had eight catches for 236 yards and two touchdowns.
Up next
The Huskies have their work cut out for themselves Saturday as they travel to Big Rapids to take on No. 1 Ferris State. The Bulldogs remained undefeated with a win over Grand Valley State.