Ashland University will be traveling to Northwood this Saturday for the Eagles’ GLIAC road opener after falling to No. 2 in the country Ferris State in week three.

The Eagles are now 1-2, 0-1 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference after putting up a valiant effort against the Bulldogs, losing 28-13 at the Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field.

The defense forced four turnovers over the course of the game and held back one of the top offenses in the country. The offensive end, however, is where the Eagles struggled most.

“The challenge right now for us is to find a way to run the football,” said Owens. “We don’t feel particularly great about where we”re at at this point (speaking on offense) – any chance of us going up there and not being ready of being overconfident is very slim to none.”

The Timberwolves are now 0-3, 0-1 after opening GLIAC play with a 27-3 home loss to No. 9 Grand Valley State.

The Eagle defense will face off against returning Ferris State quarterback, senior Joe Garberino. Garbino has a total of 234 passing yards and a completion percentage of 43.1 percent over the course of his first three games played.

“They’re offense is similar to what Ferris runs,” Owens said. “Very, very similar to what we saw last week. They still present challenges. They’re throwing about half the time, which is really different from what they’ve done before.”

On the Timberwolves defense, senior defensive back Dimitri Abro is tied for the conference lead in total tackles with 30 and poses a major threat for the Eagles.

“We’re throwing the ball three times more than we’re running it and we’re throwing it under 50 percent, that’s not good,” Owens said. “Right now the challenge for us is to find a way to run the football, regardless of who we play. We’re working hard on handling, man coverage and especially running the football. We’re going in with more offensive run plays than we have the past couple weeks, stuff that we used to do with our run game that we’ve gotten away from in the past couple of years.”

The Eagles will travel to Midland, Michigan on Sept. 28 to play the Timberwolves at 1 p.m. at the Hantz Football Stadium. Live coverage can be heard on 88.9 WRDL.