Ferris State Football Rolls To Decisive Road Victory In Regular-Season Finale

Postgame Highlights

Houghton, Mich. - The Ferris State University football squad wrapped up the regular-season in a big way as the Bulldogs rolled to a decisive 49-7 road victory over the Michigan Tech Huskies on Saturday (Nov. 11) at Sherman Field in Houghton.

The Bulldogs closed the regular-season with a dominating win as they rolled up nearly 500 yards of total offense and allowed only 151 total yards while improving to 9-1 overall and 8-1 in the GLIAC.

Sophomore quarterback Travis Russell tossed four touchdowns in the win as the Bulldogs notched their seventh consecutive triumph.

FSU opened the scoring in the opening period when Russell found paydirt on a nine-yard TD run to finish a 13-play, 80-yard Bulldog jaunt with 3:10 to play in the first.

Michigan Tech, though, answered in the final minute of the opening stanza when Garrett Young reached the endzone on a one-yard TD run to finish a six-play, 65-yard MTU drive.

However, the Bulldogs had an answer soon after as Russell hooked up with slot Devontae Harrington on an eight-yard scoring completion with 12:09 left in the half. His score wrapped up an eight-play, 63-yard FSU drive.

FSU quickly increased its lead late in the first half as Russell engineered a short six-play, 42-yard drive and found slot Lindrell Mitchell from 19-yards away for the score, giving FSU a 21-7 halftime lead.

Ferris State started strong again in the second half as FSU marched 37 yards in four plays and pushed the advantage to 28-7 on Harrington's second TD of the day. He hauled in a 24-yard scoring throw from Russell.

Then, midway thru the third stanza, Russell hooked up with senior wideout Brandon Walker on a 51-yard touchdown pass up the sideline to push FSU's margin to 35-7 overall.

The Bulldogs later added a pair of fourth quarter scores with quarterback Bret Mooney finding Jevon Shaw both times. The first was from 15-yards away with the second coming on a six-yard TD throw.

Russell completed 15-of-24 passes for 174 yards and four TD's. Meanwhile, tailback Robert Thomas had a team-high 65 rushing yards on 11 carries. Walker caught three passes for 71 yards with wideout Keyondre Craig making six receptions for 46 yards in the win.

Defensively, senior linebacker Nick Huckabay tallied a team-high 10 tackles with junior Zach Sieler adding eight tackles, including two for loss, to go with a quarterback sack.

The FSU defensive unit limited the Huskies to only 51 rushing yards on 34 attempts while beating MTU for the sixth consecutive year.

Ferris State will now await the official announcement of the NCAA Division II Playoff bids, which will be annnounced Sunday at 5 p.m. (ET) at www.NCAA.com. The Bulldogs are expected to receive the program's fourth consecutive playoff berth.

Stay tuned for a complete recap!