Football | 9/30/2021 12:10:00 PM

SETTING THE STAGE
● The Panthers will conclude a grueling four-game road trip which includes their second trip to the Upper Peninsula for Saturday's GLIAC opener at Michigan Tech. The team will have traveled 2,664 round-trip miles to the four destinations. Davenport is currently 1-2 on the road this season including last week's 38-0 setback at Ferris State.
● The Panthers and Huskies will be meeting on the gridiron for the fourth time this weekend with Michigan Tech holding a 2-1 edge in the series. This will be the third time that Davenport will be playing on the road after consecutive road games in 2017 and 2018. The previous two meetings in Houghton were decided by seven points or less.
● During the last meeting back on Oct. 19, 2019, the Huskies traveled to Caledonia for the first time and was dominant in the first half building a 30-0 lead at halftime. MTU scored on their first three drives of the game with two touchdowns followed by a field goal, all in the first quarter. The Huskies then went three possessions without a score before ending the half with back-to-back touchdowns for the 30-point lead. Davenport scored all 17 of their points in the second half for the 30-17 final. DU had a safety and Lorenzo White touchdown run in the third quarter and a Nate Couturier touchdown grab from Haiden Majewski with 1:11 left in the game.
● Michigan Tech has dropped their last two games after a season-opening 14-10 win over Hillsdale. The Huskies have not had to leave Houghton this season playing in their fourth straight home game on Saturday. Last week, MTU welcomed No. 9 Grand Valley State and the Lakers returned home with a 44-21 victory. GVSU built a 30-0 lead at halftime and never looked back. The Lakers gained 430 yards of offense including 320 yards on the ground. Tariq Reid carried 13 times for 131 yards and four of those carries entered the end zone. Reid earned GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performance. Jordan Janssen caught an eight-yard touchdown from Will Ark in the third quarter, Michael Bates returned an interception 63 yards for a score, and Kyle Wood had an eight-yard touchdown run for the Huskies.

DAVENPORT NOTEBOOK
● The Davenport defense came to play on Saturday at Ferris State and held down a high-powered Bulldog offense in the first half. Ferris was forced to punt on their first two drives including a sack by D.J. Turner to end the second drive. On the third drive, FSU reached the DU 25-yard line but Evan Cummins was stuffed on fourth-and-two for a loss of two yards by DeShaun Lowery. The Bulldogs scored their first touchdown on a 12-play drive with 3:23 left in the second quarter and quickly scored again before halftime for a 14-0 lead. The DU defense was on the field too much in the second half as FSU possessed the ball for over 16 minutes and added 24 more points. Ferris State was averaging 48.7 points coming into the contest.
● Liam Cavanaugh led the team with 15 tackles last week and established a new career-high in the process. He has missed two games this season and has 18 tackles for the year with three pass breakups. 
● Jalen Robinson took over the team lead with 30 tackles this season and had six tackles with a tackle for loss at Ferris State.
● Kaleb Elam set a new career-high with 10 tackles including six solo stops at FSU. His previous career-high was six tackles coming in the spring of 2020 against Gannon at home on Apr. 9. 
● The Davenport defense had a season-high eight tackles for loss and four sacks against the Bulldogs. They have back-to-back weeks with four sacks with the same total at Northern Michigan.

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INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK McMAHON