AU faces off against rival GSVU on Saturday
Gei’vonni Washington made history on Sept. 30 as he was named the 2019 Week four GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts in the victory against Northwood on Sept. 28
October 2, 2019
Ashland University football, now 2-2 overall and 1-1 in conference, will travel to Allendale, Mich. this Saturday to play another tough opponent and rival, Grand Valley State University.
The Eagles will be piggybacking off of their successful battle with Northwood last Saturday, which was not only a celebratory occasion for a solid 31-28 victory, but also the fact that it was the 500th all-time win in AU program history.
No. 9 GVSU is currently undefeated in their season along with No. 2 Ferris State and No. 11 Indianapolis, both teams that AU has previously played this season.
“We’ve played the best,” head coach Lee Owens said. “The focus to play better than we did the last two times. We played good enough defense in both those games to win, but we didn’t play good enough offense. We didn’t finish drives, we didn’t play well in the red zone and we turned the ball over and gave them a couple cheap scores. If we do those things again we won’t beat Grand Valley.”
The good thing is that when looking back on Northwood, the Eagles have been improving on the offensive side of their game.
Austin Brenner saw his highest passing percentage of the year (63.6%), Jourdan Swett recorded another takeaway and freshman tailback Gei’vonni Washington had a standout game with three touchdown runs and 125 yards which contributed to the season high 228 team rushing yards.
The Eagle defense will have their own battle on Saturday, facing one of the toughest offenses in the country.
GVSU sophomore running back Aryuan Cain-Veasey has a league-high 110.7 rushing yards per game and redshirt freshman wide receiver Daevon Anderson leads the league with 100.3 receiving yards per contest. Heading the offense has been redshirt-freshman Cade Peterson, who has earned 458 passing yards and 98 rushing yards in his first three games as a Laker.
“He’s as good of a runner as they’ve had in a long time,” Owens said. “Grand Valley doesn’t like to run their quarterback traditional, this year is a little different. They’re structured a lot like Ferris.”
The Eagles will travel to Allendale, Mich. on Oct. 5 to play the Lakers at 7 p.m. at the Arend D. Lubbers Stadium. Live coverage can be heard on 88.9 WRDL.
