Michigan Tech quarterback Alex Freese breaks a tackle during a game against the South Dakota Mines on Thursday, Sept. 5, at Curley Stadium in Houghton. (David Archambault/For the Gazette)
HOUGHTON — With a 44-7 victory over No. 13 Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Saturday, the Michigan Tech Huskies football team finished the non-conference portion of the season with a 3-1 record. They are enjoying an off week this week as they prepare to face Wayne State in the GLIAC opener next Saturday.
Coach Dan Metluck said the win against the Titans was the closest the Huskies came to playing a full four quarters.
“I thought this was the first game so far this fall where we were able to play almost four-quarters of the football that we wanted to play.” he said. “I thought we established our front line on both sides of the football, so that helps everything. Stop their run.”
One obvious area where the Huskies have been effective is in the running game.
“We were able to run the football and came into the game focused on running the ball offensively and trying to figure out some things from that standpoint.” Metluck said. “Just watching their first two games, we thought we could take advantage from this film. (It) ended up working out that way. When we got down there, the players I thought we played hard up front and made some dents for the first time, and the backs also ran hard and made some plays.
“The ‘Q’ ran hard when we brought in AB (freshman QB Alex Bueno), so that part was good.”
While the offense was strong, Metluck also liked what he saw from the defense, which is still adjusting to an injury to senior linebacker Marc Sippel.
“Defensively, I felt like our front line, especially the box, dominated their front line in terms of the run game.” Metluck said. “They had something in the passing game. They let one kid run free for 110 yards, 20 yards, whatever. So we need to shore up something there.
“Overall, we did what we could in every phase of the game, which I thought was good.”
A big reason why the running game was so effective for the Huskies was the play of sophomore running back Jake Ruev, who ran 20 times for 137 yards and a touchdown on the afternoon. Metluck felt that having Luev back and healthy enough to play the entire game made a difference.
“He was our starter going into the fall, he hit hard against Bemidji, his minutes were a little limited the (last) two weeks, but he has the ability to do that every week.” Metluck said. “I think we have plenty of talent in the backfield between him, Asher (Gregory), Colby (Hindenach) and Patrick (Kastner). If we can get things started on offense, we have plenty of talent.” No matter who we are, we have the ability to run the football. ”
In addition to the way Luev attacked the Titans’ defensive line, Metluck also praised the offensive line, which did a great job of creating time and space for Luev to run effectively.
“I think I mentioned the last two weeks that we’ve been confused about what’s going on up front in terms of which organizations are playing where.” Metluck said. “So cohesion is obviously a work in progress. We’re trying to get to a point where the front five trust and know each other and know how to play next to each other. It’s been a long time coming. It’s on the way.
“I think we executed two plans for the majority of the game in terms of what we were trying to do, so for each front what we were doing, what we were communicating, It would help as well if they knew how to block. I thought they did a good job.
Among the front five who did their job, Mettlach also liked that the tight ends were able to stretch the line in either direction. Thanks to all that help, Ruev was able to take advantage of it.
“Jake runs hard.” Metluck said. “He has that extra explosiveness, so he has the ability to go a long way once he gets into space. He did a great job. I’m very proud of what he did.”
In addition to the running game improving, the Huskies have done a better job of not being bothered by penalties. On Saturday, they only had four penalties and lost 44 yards.
Although the lead had widened by the end of the game, Mettlach knew going into Saturday’s matchup it would not be easy. The Titans are a Division III program, but the conference they play in includes several nationally ranked teams, including Oshkosh and Wisconsin Lacrosse, which lost to Grand Valley State by just a touchdown on Saturday.
“The hard thing about playing against Oshkosh and the lower division players is just because they’re DIII instead of DII, you hope that the outside sounds of what’s going to happen can’t be heard in the locker room.” ” Metluck said. “I thought our guys did a really good job last week preparing to our standards and not who they were playing, and it showed on Saturday.
“So, to finish the way we did, the score doesn’t matter. I was more proud of the players on our team for the way they worked and played the game going into the bye week.” We knew we had work left to do, but we’re trying to get better every week and we’re not necessarily just worried about winning the football game, and I think they’re great in that part. I was very proud.”
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