Ashland U football faces an interesting challenge at Northwood

Will the real Northwood University football team please stand up?

The Timberwolves will bring a 2-4 overall record into Saturday’s 1 p.m. Great Midwest Athletic Conference clash with Ashland University (3-3, 3-1) in Midland, Michigan. But Northwood has looked like two different teams so far this season under first-year head coach Dustin Beurer.

The T-Wolves opened the season with three straight losses — 44-9 to Glenville State, 31-8 to Saginaw Valley State and 34-27 to Tiffin.

Then came a 68-14 GMAC beat-down of Lake Erie before a 40-18 loss to Hillsdale.

The Timberwolves bounced back last Saturday with a 33-30 win over then 4-1 Findlay to even their league record at 2-2.

Those two impressive wins at home, combined with the one-score loss to now 6-0 Tiffin at home when the Dragons had to come from behind for the win, probably have the Eagles knowing which Northwood team they’ll get Saturday.

“They are playing inspired at home,” AU coach Doug Geiser said. “They are a different team at home. By all rights they should have beat Tiffin. They’re just playing with a different energy, playing with a lot of confidence.

“The new coaching staff has come in and has definitely got the troops inspired.”

Against Findlay, the Timberwolves fell behind 14-0, then rallied to lead 17-14 at halftime. In a back-and-forth second half, the Oilers took a 30-26 lead with just 3:19 left in the game, then stopped two Northwood possessions.

But presented with a third chance with 37 seconds left, redshirt junior quarterback Jacob Barlage found receiver Bryan Kinley for the winning touchdown pass with 19 seconds remaining.

Barlage finished the game with 26 completions in 47 attempts for 280 yards and three scores. In a strong offensive performance, the T-Wolves also rushed for 144 yards against the Oilers.

For the season, Barlage has completed 91 of 172 attempts (53 percent) for 1,137 yards and eight touchdowns with five interceptions. He had his best game against Lake Erie, completing 13-of-19 for 288 yards and three touchdowns to earn GMAC Offensive Player of the Week honors.

Senior running back Cashual Goldsmith leads the ground game with 85 rushes for 392 yards and two touchdowns. Senior Sebastian Toland has 34 carries for 113 yards and two touchdowns, and redshirt junior QB Jake Kelbert has 27 carries for 117 yards with two touchdowns.

“They’re definitely the best offense we’ve faced since Tiffin,” Geiser said. “They might be the second best offense in the league.

“With a new staff coming in they definitely are not running the option (as in the past). They’re going to run some power reads, (run-pass options), different personnel groups and formations and cause dilemmas with that. It is very, very high-powered and will be a unique challenge.”

While the Northwood offense has been producing, the T-Wolves defense has been giving up big yards. Findlay passed for 310 yards and ran for another 135 in the loss last Saturday.

In six games, the Northwood defense is allowing nearly 400 yards and 32 points per game.

Junior defensive back Stephen Douglas leads the defense with 8.8 tackles per game. He was the GMAC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against Tiffin, when he had 15 tackles, an interception for a 100-yard TD return, forced a fumble and blocked an extra point.

Redshirt junior linebacker Mbaimba Tunkara is averaging 6.8 tackles per game with 8.5 tackles for loss and two sacks. Redshirt junior linebacker Daniel Wynn is averaging 5.0 tackles per game with 8.5 tackles for loss and three sacks.

Defensive end Brandon Ross was named this week’s GMAC Defensive Player of the Week for his six tackles, two tackles for loss and the forced fumble that led to the winning score against Findlay.

“Even though they’ve given up some points, they have a lot of (tackles for loss), a lot of sacks,” Geiser said. “They know how to generate negative yardage plays when they need them. That’s what I’ve been impressed with.”

Coming off a home win over Walsh, the Eagles will take a two-game win streak to Northwood. AU overcame dropped passes, penalties and squandered field position to get to .500 overall on the season with the victory over the Cavaliers.

Quarterback Trevor Bycznski completed 15-of-28 pass attempts for 232 yards and all three Eagle scores in the win.

AU also had its best ground attack of the season, although it took until the fourth quarter to show up. Senior tailback Larry Martin finished with 18 carries for 131 yards with 88 of those yards coming in the fourth quarter.

Martin now ranks third in the GMAC with 437 yards on 83 carries with five touchdowns.

Bycznski is the league’s fourth-ranked passer with 103 completions in 179 attempts for 1,186 yards with 10 touchdowns and just three interceptions.

Receiver Dezmin Lyburtus continues to lead the GMAC with 37 receptions. His 424 yards in catches ranks fifth.

It likely will take a balanced offensive attack and another strong defensive effort to bring a win back to Ashland on Saturday.

“When you travel, it’s tough to win on any field in college football,” Geiser said. That’s for sure.

“We’ll watch them against similar style defenses and see how they attack that and maybe extrapolate how they’re going to attack us.

“And the challenge for the offensive staff is to continue to put us in good personnel formations against what we expect to see. The execution is starting to come around a little bit. Hopefully that does build for Northwood.”

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: College Football: previewing Ashland at Northwood