The Bulldogs buried the Saginaw Valley Cardinals 51-17 behind Trevor Bermingham’s five first half touchdowns on senior day.
Senior quarterback Trevor Bermingham got the start over junior Reggie Bell after Bell suggested to head coach Tony Annese that Bermingham should play in the last game of the season.
On the first possession of the game, Bermingham faced third and long from his own 30. He ran up the middle and went 70 yards for a touchdown.
The Cardinals answered back on the following drive with help from the Bulldogs. Ferris had two third down penalties that resulted in Cardinal first downs. Freshman running back Tommy Scott Jr. finished the drive off with a 10-yard touchdown run.
Birmingham put up 14 points himself in the next two minutes of game time. Ferris had two three-play drives with a big pass in each to set the offense at the goal line with sophomore receiver Malik Taylor and senior Shakur Sanders making those catches on respective drives. Bermingham ran it in from one yard and six yards out for touchdowns on both possessions.
The offensive onslaught continued for Bermingham as he had another 68-yard touchdown run and a six-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Thompson to polish off his scoring numbers. He had four rushing touchdowns and a passing touchdown on 330 yards of total yards to end the first half. Bermingham finished the game with 186 yards rushing. He also went 10-12 passing for 195 yards.
Freshman running back Marvin Campbell would score a touchdown late in the second quarter to end the half with the Bulldogs up 41-7.
In the third quarter, senior running back Juwan Lewis rushed for a touchdown and junior kicker Wyatt Ford kicked a field goal. The Cardinals scored a touchdown and field goal in the fourth quarter to finalize the score at 51-17.
In addition to being a back-up quarterback, Bermingham has been one of the best punters in the nation this year. The Bulldogs came into the day at No. 2 in Div. 2 for net punting, averaging 40.4 net yards per punt. Annese saw an opportunity to take the lead in that statistic and punted on third down and nine in the fourth quarter. Bermingham booted the ball 63 yards with no return. Despite the effort, Ferris fell short of reaching No. 1 in net punting by less than a yard to Arkansas Tech.
The defense played phenomenally holding the Cardinals to five of 18 on third down conversions and allowed less than 200 yards of total offense by the end of the third quarter. Senior linebacker Anthony Darkangelo and junior linebacker Nick Huckabay led the team with 10 tackles each. Junior defensive back KC Zenner had two interceptions on the day.
The Bulldogs are in the playoffs with this win, but matchups and game sites are still to be determined. The date of the first game is set for Saturday, Nov. 19.
For a full recap of the game, click here.