CALEDONIA, Mich. - The highly-acclaimed senior class had one more show for the fans at the Farmers Insurance Athletic Complex scoring a season-high 52 points in the 52-31 win over Northern Michigan. The last three years has seen the program grow into one of the best in NCAA Division II with a record of 23-7 over their last 30 games. It was a redshirt freshman however at quarterback who led the offense in this one in his first career start.
Mac VandenHout got some quality playing time in last week's game at Saginaw Valley State, but took the first snaps for the first time and showed his promise towards the future. VandenHout finished with 113 rushing yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns and also had 156 passing yards and two more touchdowns as the Panthers won their fifth straight game over the Wildcats.
The game saw a first as a program with two players rushing for over 100 yards in the same game.
Myren Harris led the team with 115 rushing yards and had two scores on the ground. The Panthers rushed for 278 yards and five touchdowns as
Javian Tomlinson scored his first career touchdown on his only carry of the game. On the defensive side,
Cameren Grodhaus set a school record with 25 tackles including 10 solo stops. He broke the five-year old mark set by Kye Black on Oct. 5, 2019 versus Ferris State. The run-heavy attack for Northern Michigan featured 65 attempts for 324 yards. The Panthers would score touchdowns on seven of their 10 full possessions. They had two possessions with just one play as a kneel down at the end of the first and second half.Â
The defense was able to force two fumbles in the first three drives for Northern Michigan. On the opening drive, the Wildcats drove 49 yards in 12 plays, but
Reed Snitker forced a Jake Bilitz two-yard loss and fumbled that was recovered by
Kennedy Nelson at the DU 40-yard line. That set up DU's first score of a 28-yard
Brandon Gielow field goal with 5:53 left in the first quarter. NMU scored a touchdown on their next drive, but fumbled on the first play of their third drive. Bilitz was stripped by
Latrell Scott and
Myles Harris recovered at the NMU 20-yard line. VandenHout carried for 20 yards on the next play for a 17-7 lead at the 13:28 mark of the second quarter. Tomlinson's seven-yard touchdown stretched the lead to 24-7 with 3:38 left until halftime.
A very unique play gave the Wildcats their second touchdown on the ground just before halftime.
Justin White blocked a 21-yard field goal attempt by Michael Karlen and the ball went into the air where Jake Price, a defensive lineman, grabbed it and ran six yards into the end zone pushed by his teammates. The Wildcats made it interesting in the third quarter to pull within 31-24 after a Karlen 32-yard field goal with 55 seconds left in the quarter. VandenHout then had his best throw of the game down the sideline to
Hakeem Harris who got behind the defense and caught the ball at midfield before racing a total of 77 yards for a score to make it 38-24 on the last play of the quarter. It was the second-longest pass play of the season for the Panthers.
NMU went three-and-out to start the fourth quarter and DU seized the momentum to put the game out of reach.
Stone Smeenge had a 20-yard reception followed by a 39-yard run by Harris to set up first-and-goal from the NMU 8-yard line. Harris carried two more times including a three-yard touchdown for a 45-24 lead. After a NMU touchdown made it 45-31, VandenHout connected over the middle with
Peyton Carder on his first touchdown reception of the season covering 38 yards for the final score with 2:27 left in the contest.
The Panthers will travel to Big Rapids next Saturday for the inaugural Calder City Classic against current No. 2 Ferris State. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 PM at Top Taggart Field.
