Huskies Hold Off Wildcats for Sixth Straight Miner's Cup Win
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Northern Michigan (2-2) | 0 | 7 | 13 | 3 | 23 |
|
Michigan Tech (4-0) | 7 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 24 |
HOUGHTON, Mich. — Tanner Agen and Evan Mayer combined to block a 45-yard field goal attempt on the game's final play to help Michigan Tech earn a 24-23 victory over Northern Michigan in front of 3,918 fans at Sherman Field tonight.
Just one year after the Huskies won the Miner's Cup in Marquette with a 39-yard field goal by Garrett Mead on the game's final play, Tech came up on the right side of the score again.
The Huskies scored on a seven-yard Brandon Cowie-to-David Walter pass with 2:10 remaining, and Josh King kicked the extra point for the one point lead.
NMU drove 47 yards to the Tech 28 with three seconds remaining. Wildcat kicker Ryan LaBerge lined up for the potential game-winner, but Mayer got a hand on it as did Agen to keep the Miner's Cup in Houghton for the sixth straight year.
"We keep putting ourselves in coin flip games, and it keeps coming up heads," said Tech coach Tom Kearly. "They had us on the ropes a couple times, and we fought back and made the play at the end to win it."
Northern Michigan scored three straight touchdowns spanning halftime for a 20-10 lead with 2:34 remaining in the third quarter. The extra point on the third TD was missed.
Tech answered with an 11-play, 75-yard drive at the 13:54 mark of the fourth quarter to pull within 20-17.
LaBerge kicked a 33-yard field goal with 8:16 to go to spread the gap to six (23-17).
Cowie then guided the Huskies 75 yards again. This time, he completed 7-of-8 passes for 64 yards on the drive including the scoring play to Walter, who now has a TD in every game this season.
With two timeouts left, NMU moved the ball down the field to the Tech 28. Mayer and Agen both got hands on the kick to stop it and preserve Tech's second one-point win of 2015.
"We had seen a blocked kick on film that Northwood had against them and practiced it yesterday. We were fortunate enough to get it."
Tech (4-0, 4-0 GLIAC) held a slight edge in total offense (377-to-360) and had good balance with 191 yards passing and 186 rushing.
Kevin Miller (78 yards), John Williams (52) and Cowie (50) all rushed for 50 yards in the contest.
Cowie completed 21-of-27 passes with two touchdowns and his first career interception.
The first Tech touchdown came on a two-yard toss to fullback Alex Sherbinow for a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
King added a 24-yard field goal for a 10-point margin at 12:01 of the 2nd.
NMU (2-2, 1-2 GLIAC) scored with less than a minute left in the opening half to pull within 10-7 at the break.
The Wildcats scored again on their opening drive of the second half and added to the lead with a 40-yard interception return for a touchdown with 2:34 left in quarter three.
Cedric Jones had a team-high nine tackles for Tech. Brandon Hutchison had three tackles for loss including a sack. Paul Kuoppala added six total tackles with a key sack on NMU's final drive.
Michigan Tech will had next week off before playing its Homecoming game vs. Northwood on Oct. 10. Kickoff at Sherman Field is set for 1 p.m.
Notes: Tech is 9-2 in games decided by a touchdown or less since the 2013 season (including 3-0 this year) … The Huskies improved to 43-41-5 all-time against NMU … The Black and Gold have won 11 of the 14 Miner's Cup games since the trophy was established in 2002.
