UNIVERSITY CENTER -- The SVSU Football team, despite a fast start in Saturday's season finale at home versus Davenport, fell to the Panthers by a final score of 33-23.
The Cardinals got out to a 14-0 lead in the game and led 23-16 at the half but DU held SVSU scoreless in the third and fourth quarters, scoring 17 unanswered points and claiming the 10-point victory.
Both teams finish the 2019 season with a 5-6 overall record and 3-5 mark in the GLIAC.
SVSU scored right on the first drive, charging down the field and getting a 10-yard touchdown run from Tye Mintz for the 7-0 lead. The team's next drive would be capped-off by a Nate McCrary 39-yard score, which gave the team a 14-0 edge and put McCrary over the 1,000 yard mark for the season.
DU used a turnover to get the next score, taking an interception to the house to trim the SV lead to 14-7.
A Connor Luksic 30-yard field goal pushed the lead to 17-7 to begin the second quarter but the Panthers bounced right back and made that count 17-14 with a long touchdown pass of their own.
With just 14 seconds remaining in the opening half, Ryan Conklin found Chad Gailliard for aa 1-yard touchdown to make the score 23-14. On the ensuing extra-point attempt, however, a bad snap led to an errant PAT pass try that was intercepted and returned back for two Panther points. That made the count 23-16 with SV leading headed to halftime.
Neither team scored in the third quarter and that same score held true until the fourth when Davenport returned a punt 43 yards for a score and knotted the score at 23-23 with 14:41 left to play.
The Panthers scored two more times, capitalizing on Cardinal miscues and eventually coming away with the 33-23 win.
Inside the Boxscore
- McCrary's 95 yards in the contest puts him at 1,060 for the season. It's his first 1,000-yard season and first for the program since Norman Shuford in 2013.
- Conklin finished with a career-best 334 yards through the air with a touchdown and two picks. He finishes his SVSU career with a career-best 2,379 yards this season and 7,701 career yards. He is now second all-time in program history with that total, passing Matt LaFleur's mark of 7,699. He led the GLIAC in 2019 with 216.3 yards/game and 19 passing touchdowns.
- Gailliard reeled-in seven catches for 136 yards and a touchdown. He finished the regular season as the GLIAC-leader with 10 touchdowns. He was named the Meijer "Player of the Game" as well.
- Casey Williams had six grabs for 101 yards. It marks his fourth 100-yard game of the season and third straight. He finished as the league-leader with 81.3 yards/game receiving.
- Michael Woolridge had a team-high nine tackles with a sack and 2.5 TFL.
- Austin Egler matched those nine tackles in his final SVSU game.
- David Still had seven stops and Justin Whitted five in their final contests as well.
The 2019 season has concluded for the team and we would like to thank the 20 seniors for their efforts throughout their careers!
Postgame Interview
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