HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech football team will play its first Saturday game of the season this week, hosting Hillsdale at Kearly Stadium for a noon kickoff.
Spirit T-Shirt Giveaway
Fans are encouraged to get to the game early as the first 400 fans will get a spirit T-shirt printed by Superior Graphics while supplies last. Gates open at 10:30 a.m. for the noon kickoff.
Welcome Back 2014 Team
Alumni from the 2014 team will be introduced at halftime of Saturday's game for the 10 year reunion, with a group photo to be taken following the game.
Watch The Huskies
All home and GLIAC games will be streamed on FloSports. Michigan Tech fans can watch all home and conference games in volleyball, basketball, football and soccer with one subscription. FloSports provides each subscriber with access to all content and events with the purchase of a monthly or yearly subscription. Subscriptions are offered in two different billing packages - monthly and annual. Discounts are available for students enrolled at GLIAC member and associate member institutions. You must subscribe with a .edu email address to be eligible. FloSports is available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, and Chromecast.
The Series
Michigan Tech leads Hillsdale 13-11 in the series that started in the 1981 season. MTU has been almost perfect against the Chargers at home, with an 8-1 ledger against Hillsdale at Kearly Stadium. Additionally, the Black & Gold have won their last five meetings with the Chargers dating back to the 2018 season.Â
About the Chargers
Hillsdale travels north following a setback in their season and home opener against then-no. 16 nationally-rank Indianapolis 42-16 at Frank "Muddy" Waters Stadium on Saturday.
Similar to the Huskies, the Chargers stumbled early in their contest, falling back 28-7 to UIndy before heading to the locker rooms for halftime. Hillsdale showed life in the second half stopping UIny on four consecutive drives in the second half highlighted by a safety coming from a tackle by Hunter Sperling. The safety fired up the Chargers offense, capping a nine-play, 66-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown run by tailback Kyle Riffel.
Quarterback Cole Canter threw for 260 yards completing 14 of 32 attempts throwing for a touchdown and three interceptions in his debut game for the Chargers.
In total, the Chargers accrued 284 total yards of offense with 15 first downs while going six-of-15 on third downs.
Defensively, Jacob Vance led Hillsdale with eight total tackles with Vince Francescone adding six tackles for Hillsdale.
Nate Shreffler is in his first year at the helm as the head coach of the Chargers who were picked to finish fourth in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
About the HuskiesÂ
Michigan Tech is 1-1 on the season following a Thursday night four-overtime thriller where the Huskies prevailed 52-50 over South Dakota Mines at Kearly Stadium. In the win, quarterback Alex Fries tossed for a single-game school record with 471 passing yards and five touchdowns. He was named GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts.
The game seemingly made waves within the collegiate football scene the rest of the week on social media due to the Huskies coming back from being down 21-0 in the second quarter along with the broken school record and overtime frenzy.
The wide receiver room was incredible with Fries' top target, high school teammate Ethan Champney having 10 grabs for 227 yards and two touchdowns—20 yards shy of the single-game reception record. Darius Willis, the program's all-time reception leader, caught six passes for 115 yards and a touchdown while Brandon Michalak had a season-high seven receptions for 74 yards and a touchdown.
On the ground, running back Asher Gregory carried the ball 10 times for 42 yards scoring his first career touchdown on a nine-yard run.
Defensive back Hunter Buechel was on a tier with a team-leading 15 total tackles (seven solo, eight assisted) with three tackles for loss (14 yards) along with the game-clinching pass breakup on South Dakota Mines's final two-point conversion in 4 OT. Linebacker Chase Koch stepped up big for the Black & Gold with 11 total tackles with three tackles for loss and a sack for 10 yards. Jared Terrence also made a big stop for the Huskies with his interception in the fourth quarter.
One Last Thing
Tech head coach Dan Mettlach was a quarterback coach on Hillsdale's staff early in his coaching career. He helped Hillsdale to a GLIAC Championship in 2011 in a season where the Chargers averaged 31,6 points and 241.6 passing yards per game—while quarterback Anthony Mifsud threw for 2,507 yards and 15 touchdowns that fall.
