Box Score You get the feeling that at Ferris State, the video equipment has but three buttons – Play, Stop and Fast Forward.
The Bulldogs spend a lot of their time in fast forward. That was evident Saturday night at Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field where the 'Dogs demonstrated exceptional athletic ability and a propensity to score in a hurry. They shut down the Ashland University Eagles, 34-7.
FSU is 2-1 and 2-0 in GLIAC play. Ashland is 0-3 and 0-2. This is the first time the Eagles have been 0-3 since 2003. The loss snapped a six-game home regular-season winning streak.
"It was a tough matchup for us," said AU head coach Lee Owens. "Their offense creates a lot of problems. They're very athletic on defense. I knew coming into this it would be a difficult matchup."
The Bulldogs scored the game's first 27 points. FSU led 7-0 after the first quarter and 27-0 at halftime. Ashland's lone score came on a 15-yard run by freshman quarterback Tra'Von Chapman with 12:47 remaining in the game. That was the first touchdown of his AU career.
Like every team that faces the Bulldogs, AU had to try and find a way to contain quarterback Jason Vander Laan. He completed 13-of-18 passes for 174 yards and ran 15 times for 53 yards. Those numbers are actually pedestrian for the hard-charging quarterback. But Vander Laan did an exceptional job of getting the ball to FSU speedsters on the outside. That became a major problem for the Eagles.
"We kind of anticipated that they would be focused on interior run defense," said FSU head coach Tony Annese. "We happened to get it to some of our fast guys on the perimeter for some big plays. We were able to do that. I thought we were able to mix it."
Six FSU ball carriers had runs of 12 or more yards. The passing game included completions of 44, 38, 23 and 26 yards. Kitwana Clark rushed for a team-high 66 yards on 10 trips. Dontae Ingraham had six receptions for 51 yards, Antonio Agurs caught three passes for 59 yards and Jake Lampman had three receptions for 53 yards. Ferris State had 500 yards of total offense – 300 on the ground and 200 through the air.
Here's a positive from the AU standpoint – the Eagles forced three turnovers. Those came on a pair of interceptions and a fumble recovery. Linebackers Zach Olszewski and Domi-on Combs had the picks. The Eagles hoped they could have used those steals to fire up their offense. FSU prevented that from happening.
"We didn't help ourselves," lamented Owens. "Against this scheme you hope to get a couple of turnovers. We got the turnovers but we were inept offensively. The first half was just horrible. We were trying to help the offense out a little bit. We did throw an interception, we gave up a score. We didn't move the chains consistently."
A 12-yard touchdown run by Vander Laan gave FSU a 7-0 lead with 10:39 left in the opening quarter. That lead expanded to 14-0 with 12:28 left in the first half on an 8-yard run by Lampman. Both of those scoring drives went eight plays and the first march covered 71 yards, the second 68. A 15-yard touchdown run by Korey Ringer with 6:40 to play in the half pushed the lead to 21-0.
Ferris State defensive end Justin Zimmer intercepted Chapman with 5:31 left in the half and returned that interception 15 yards for a touchdown. Zimmer had quite a night – he finished with eight tackles, 2.5 sacks and the interception.
"We knew they were kind of in a transformation," Annese said of the Eagles. "I'm sure it won't take much longer. They're great coaches. We saw in the first two games they're still growing. I was so concerned about Anthony Taylor. I thought we contained him. We didn't know what to expect with Tra'Von Chapman. He's a great dual-threat guy. I could see them putting it together. With young people, it takes time."
Taylor rushed for 91 yards on 17 carries (5.4 ypc.). Through three games, he's gained 414 yards on 58 carries (7.1 ypc.).
Chapman and starting quarterback Austin Bruns, completed 13-of-28 passes for 95 yards.
The Eagles got a tremendous defensive effort from several players. Linebacker Chris Harvey had 18 tackles and 2.0 tackles for loss (5 yards). Defensive back Quenton Scott had 12 tackles and defensive lineman Jamie Meder had 11 tackles.
AU limited the Bulldogs to seven second-half points.
"Offensively, we kind of lost our way," admitted Annese.
The Eagles play at home again next week. Northern Michigan will be in town for a Saturday night game (Sept. 28, 7:05). The Wildcats are 1-1.
AU
FB/ALK
