BIG RAPIDS — Heading into its third-place showdown with Ferris State, Wayne State had yet to beat a team with a better record than itself. That all changed — and in a big way — as the Warriors turned in another dominant defensive effort and shut out the Bulldogs 19-0 at Top Taggart Stadium on Oct. 18.
Jeremy Jones put the exclamation point on the low-scoring contest with his 86-yard interception return for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter. Jones, who is a native of nearby Rockford, also intercepted a pass later in the game.
“Our defense came through today,” WSU coach Paul Winters said. “We knew this was a heck of a football team and we knew that we would have to play great defense.”
David Chudzinski kicked four field goals — three in the second quarter — to give Wayne State the lead, but as far as the Warriors were concerned, it wasn’t a big enough advantage.
“Even with the interception, we still had to keep our focus because Ferris, I believe, won their last five games in the last seconds of the fourth quarter,” quarterback Kevin Smith said. “After that interception, the game wasn’t over. We knew we had to keep playing.”
Despite throwing for only 54 yards, it was something Smith didn’t do that allowed his team to knock off nationally ranked FSU (5-3, 4-3 GLIAC) — turn the ball over.
Kyle Parrish and Tom Schneider, the Ferris State quarterbacks, did however. The two of them threw three interceptions combined. FSU had four turnovers in all.
Those four mishaps led to 13 Wayne State points and negated the statistical advantages the Bulldogs held across the board.
The defense, affectionately known as “The Green Swarm,” also put a lot of pressure on the FSU quarterbacks, sacking them six times.
The road shutout was the first for Wayne State (6-2, 5-2 GLIAC) since a 21-0 victory at Northwood on Oct. 17, 1992 and was the second goose-egg put up by the defense in 2008. The last time the Warriors had multiple shutouts in a season was in 1977, when they had four.
All that being said …
“We can definitely get better,” Jones said. “There were penalties out there, mistakes that you gotta get rid of. Coach said ‘Don’t think you did good today, because you still have a long way to go.’”
That road continues Oct. 25 at noon against Hillsdale (5-3, 4-3 GLIAC) at Adams Field.
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