Tech Football Welcomes Hillsdale to Kearly Stadium on Saturday

Football
9/11/2024 12:45:00 PM

Matt Taylor – Director of Athletics Communications

HOUGHTON, MichiganThe Michigan Tech football team plays its first Saturday game of the season this week, hosting Hillsdale at Kearly Stadium for a noon kickoff.

Spirit T-shirt contest

Fans are encouraged to arrive early to the game, as the first 400 fans will receive a spirit T-shirt printed by Superior Graphics, while supplies last. Gates open at 10:30 a.m. for a 12:00 p.m. kickoff.

Welcome back 2014 Team

Former players from the 2014 team will be introduced during halftime of the 10-year reunion match on Saturday. A group photo will be taken after the match.

Check out the huskies

All home and GLIAC games are streamed on FloSports. Michigan Tech fans can watch all home and conference games in volleyball, basketball, football, and soccer with one subscription. FloSports offers every subscriber access to all content and events with the purchase of a monthly or annual subscription. Subscriptions are offered in two different billing packages – monthly and annual. Discounts are available for students enrolled at GLIAC member and associate member institutions. You must subscribe with a .edu email address to be eligible. FloSports is available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, and Chromecast.

The series

Michigan Tech leads Hillsdale, 13-11, in the series that began in the 1981 season. MTU has been nearly perfect against the Chargers at home, recording an 8-1 record against Hillsdale at Kearly Stadium. Additionally, the Black & Gold have won their last five meetings with the Chargers, dating back to the 2018 season.

About the chargers

Hillsdale travels north after a setback in its season, losing its home opener to then-nationally ranked No. 16 Indianapolis 42-16 at Frank “Muddy” Waters Stadium on Saturday.

Like the Huskies, the Chargers stumbled early in their game, falling 28-7 to UIndy before heading to the locker room for halftime. Hillsdale showed life in the second half, stopping UIndy on four straight second-half drives, culminating in a safety breaking up a tackle by Hunter Sperling. The safety set the Chargers’ offense in motion, capping a nine-play, 66-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown run by tailback Kyle Riffel.

Quarterback Cole Canter threw for 260 yards and completed 14 of 32 attempts for a touchdown and three interceptions in his debut game for the Chargers.

In total, the Chargers accumulated 284 yards of offense with 15 first downs and six of 15 third downs.

Defensively, Jacob Vance led Hillsdale with eight total tackles, while Vince Francescone added six tackles for Hillsdale.

Nate Shreffler is in his first year as head coach of the Chargers, who finished fourth in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

About the Huskies

Michigan Tech is 1-1 on the season after a four-overtime thriller on Thursday night, which saw the Huskies beat South Dakota Mines 52-50 at Kearly Stadium. In the victory, the quarterback Alex Fries threw for a single-game school record with 471 passing yards and five touchdowns. He was named GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts.

The game sparked a social media frenzy on college football circuit for the rest of the week, as the Huskies rallied from a 21-0 deficit in the second quarter to break a school record and send the team into overtime.

The wide receiver room was incredible with Fries' top target, his high school teammate Ethan Champney with 10 grabs for 227 yards and two touchdowns, 20 yards shy of the record for most receptions in a single game. Darius Willisthe program's all-time leading receiver, catching six passes for 115 yards and a touchdown while Brandon Michalak had a season-record seven receptions for 74 yards and a touchdown.

On the ground, run back Asher Gregory carried the ball 10 times for 42 yards and scored his first career touchdown on a nine-yard run.

Defensive back Hunter Büchel was on a par with a team-leading 15 total tackles (seven solo, eight assisted) with three tackles for loss (14 yards) along with the game-clinching pass breakup on South Dakota Mines' final two-point conversion in 4 OT. Linebacker Pursuit Koch stepped up big for the Black & Gold with 11 total tackles with three tackles for loss and a sack for 10 yards. Jared Terrence also made a big stop for the Huskies with his interception in the fourth quarter.

One more thing

Tech head coach Dan Mettlach was a quarterback coach on Hillsdale's staff early in his coaching career. He helped Hillsdale to a GLIAC Championship in 2011 in a season in which the Chargers averaged 31.6 points and 241.6 passing yards per game, while quarterback Anthony Mifsud threw for 2,507 yards and 15 touchdowns that fall.