GVSU football crushes Davenport to clinch repeat GLIAC title
ALLENDALE - Abe Swanson looked like a professional wrestler in the WWE as he celebrated on the field on Saturday.
The Grand Valley State fifth-year senior linebacker pulled on a GLIAC championship t-shirt, a pair of sunglasses and a black cowboy hat with a GVSU logo on it.
“My mom put this together for me,” Swanson said of the hat. “I used to have a tan one, but I wasn’t allowed to wear it in the building because it didn’t have a GVSU logo on it. So my mom (Janice Swanson) went to work and she made this hat for me.”
The Lakers partied on the field after a 38-0 win over Davenport University on Saturday afternoon to clinch back-to-back GLIAC championships.
“To do this on senior day,” GVSU coach Scott Wooster said. “To go back-to-back for the first time since 2009-2010, it’s a testament to who these guys are as players.”
The No. 2 Lakers improved to 9-1 overall and 6-0 in the GLIAC. They will find out soon if they host a playoff game next week or get a bye in the first round.
So how does it feel to carry around the GLIAC championship trophy?
“It doesn’t get old, I’ll tell you that,” running back Tariq Reid said. “After the game, just kinda looking back, we did something nice that hadn’t been done in awhile. So we appreciate it right now. But there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Grand Valley got two rushing touchdowns from Reid and rushing TDs from Lynn Wyche-El, Kyle Nott and Avery Moore. Reid ran the ball 15 times for a game-high 120 yards.
Trick play kicks off the game
The first pass of the game wasn’t by quarterback Cade Peterson, it was by wide receiver Kyle Nott.
Peterson handed the ball off to Nott and then sprinted up the field as they completed a give-and-go play as Peterson caught a 13-yard pass. Two plays later, Lynn Wyche-El ran the ball in from 18 yards for a 7-0 lead.
“That’s just who we are,” Wooster said. “They’re not trick (plays) to us. The Kyle Notts and the Cody Tierneys, Kellen Ried … guys who have tremendously varied skill sets. Here’s Kyle Nott, who was a high school quarterback, who can do so many things for us. They’re not really trick plays for us. We’re trying to get the football down the field and go score. It’s who we are as coaches. It’s who we are as a program. We’re going to be aggressive, we’re going to have some fun.”
Nott, a junior, was a quarterback at Jenison High School. Last season, he had one pass for 16 yards. Nott would score the Lakers’ second touchdown of the game as he weaved his way for a 29-yard rushing TD in the second quarter for a 14-0 lead.
Peterson was 7-of-10 passing for 76 yards. He also ran the ball five times for 29 yards.
McCarroll leads a big defensive effort
Davenport entered the game with an 8-1 record and were second in the GLIAC. So it was shocking to see the Panthers have just two total yards off offense in the first quarter and just 15 in the first half.
“It’s fun to watch as the head coach,” Wooster said. “… going in (to the game), they’re going to have to earn everything they get against our defense.”
The man who led the Lakers defense was defensive end Christian McCarroll, a sixth-year player out of Barberton, Ohio. He had four tackles, a quarterback sack and 2.5 tackles for a loss of 15 yards.
“He’s been my locker partner for five years now and been one of my best friends,” Swanson said. “There’s a different animal that lives in Christian when it comes to game time. Each week he prepares like he’s preparing for the Super Bowl.”
McCarroll, who was GLIAC Defensive Lineman of the Year last season, has 44 tackles, tied for third on the team, and eight sacks this season.
Davenport missing its starting QB
Davenport was behind the 8-ball before the game even started. Starting quarterback Jason Whittaker, a Rockford native, warmed up but didn’t play. He apparently got hurt last week against Ferris State. So Grant Thwaites, a Greenville native, made his first-career start and it didn’t go well.
Thwaites was 12-of-22 passing for just 94 yards. The offense only had two total yards in the first quarter. They also turned the ball over four times: three fumbles and an interception.
“Without your starting quarterback … you want a game like this for everyone to be at full strength, but that’s the game of football,” Wooster said.
Whittaker, who began his career at Northwestern University, has been a starter for Davenport the past two seasons.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: GVSU football crushes Davenport to clinch GLIAC title
