Junior quarterback Trinidad Chambliss ties school record with six passing touchdowns in a 51-13 home win over the Michigan Tech Huskies.
The No. 3 nationally ranked Ferris State Bulldogs (6-1 overall, 3-0 in the GLIAC) took down the Michigan Tech Huskies (4-3 overall, 1-2 in the GLIAC) on Saturday, Oct. 19.
Ferris’ 38-point margin of victory is the largest against the Huskies since the 19-20 season, where the Bulldogs won 52-0.
The Bulldogs’ top-five-ranked offense was on full display once again versus Michigan Tech, as they totaled 577 yards and 51 points.
The offense was led by reigning GLIAC player of the week Chambliss, who completed 60% of his passes (18-30) for 383 yards and a school record-tying six touchdown passes. Chambliss also led Ferris in rushing as he went for 90 yards on ten carries.
Chambliss was in good spirits with how the offense performed against the Huskies.
“Going into the game we knew that Tech had a solid defense,” Chambliss said. “We just had to play our brand of ball, our offensive line was amazing, they worked their butts off.”
Ferris wasted no time to get on the board in this game. After a quick three and out on the first possession for the Huskies, the Bulldogs would score on the very first offensive play when Chambliss connected with senior slot receiver Emari O’Brien on a 66-yard completion.
The Bulldogs would reach the endzone two more times in the first quarter to take a 21-0 lead going into the second period, hitting senior wide receiver James Gilbert and O’Brien with touchdown strikes.
Michigan Tech outscored Ferris in the second quarter 13-10, but the Bulldogs still took a commanding 30-13 lead into the half.
The Huskies went scoreless in the second half and the Bulldogs tallied a few extra scores to finish the game with a 51-13 victory.
The pass defense for Ferris held Michigan Tech to 158 air yards, completing just 43.4% of their passes (20-46). The Huskies only mustered up 269 total yards of offense in the contest.
This is the sixth game this season where the Bulldogs have held their opponent to under 300 yards. So far this season, Ferris ranks in the top five of Division II for opponent’s yards per game, averaging just 212.6.
Senior linebacker Konnor Near, who returned for his first game since week two where he left with an injury, was ecstatic with how the defense performed.
“I thought we had a lot of fun, we had a really good week of practice,” Near said. “We held our own on a couple of short fields and held them to field goals, made tackles when we needed to and made plays, I couldn’t be happier.”
Ferris held the Huskies to just 3.63 yards per play compared to the Bulldog’s 9.45 yards per play.
Head coach Tony Annese was a huge fan of the gameplan defensively this week.
“When you play a team like that, you have to contain big plays,” Annese said. “They have a great quarterback and we held him to 20-46 through the air, I thought our defensive coaches had a great game plan and our players executed it perfectly. We made them one dimensional and forced them to throw a lot helped us out today.”
This week is the annual Anchor Bone Classic against Grand Valley State University. The game will be played at 3 p.m. in Allendale, MI on Saturday, Oct. 26. Ferris will be looking for revenge in the top-five matchup as the Lakers won the last two meetings between the teams, one of those coming in the 2023 playoffs by a score of 21-14.