ASHLAND – Riding a five-game winning streak and a 19-game home winning streak, the Ashland University football team is preparing to take on Michigan Tech Saturday in its 2017 Homecoming game.
The Eagles will take on the Huskies (3-3, 2-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest at Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field.
“Tech is a really good 3-3 team,” Ashland coach Lee Owens said. “They’ve got a lot of guys back who got after us last year. We’re anticipating a 60-minute, have-to-win-on-the-last-play type of game.”
In the eight previous Homecoming games since Jack Miller Stadium/Martinelli Field opened, the Eagles hold a 7-1 record.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be home. We do take it (Homecoming) seriously. Homecoming’s significant. It’s very significant. Just being at home pretty much guarantees you that you’re going to get great effort,” Owens said.
The Eagles (5-1, 4-0) moved up to No. 16 in this week’s Coaches Poll after beating Northern Michigan 38-13 last week. AU remains a half-game behind Grand Valley State (5-1,5-0) at the top of the GLIAC standings.
The high-scoring AU offense (34.7 points per game) is led by senior quarterback Travis Tarnowski, who continues to torch opposing defenses, with a GLIAC-high 1,496 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and a 63.3 percent completion rate. Tarnowski has thrown 191 straight passes without an interception, going back to the 2016 season.
Junior tailback Andrew Vaughn continues to lead the Eagles in rushing with 490 yards and six touchdowns, and the running game is picking up steam. Injuries have limited each of AU’s top tailbacks – Vaughn, Keishaun Sims and Luke Ogi – at various times during the season, but in the last two games, the AU ground game has looked more like the 2016 version that averaged 249.1 rushing yards a game and 6.4 yards per carry. This year, the Eagles are averaging 148.7 yards a contest and just 4.0 yards per carry. Against Northern Michigan, Ashland exploded for 233 yards and a 6.0 average.
“As our running backs have gotten healthier, the running game has gotten better,” Owens said. “We haven’t had any big hits in our run game. That’s the one thing we’ve been missing. We’ve really missed that explosive home-run hitter.”
The Huskies’ defense is led by sophomore linebacker Marvin Wright, who has 46 total tackles, two sacks, seven tackles for loss and an interception.
On offense, senior tailback John Williams is leading Michigan Tech with 707 yards and a GLIAC-high 10 rushing touchdowns.
“Very similar style – tough, physical player who breaks tackles, gets positive yards,” Owens said, comparing Williams to Northern Michigan’s Jake Mayon. “It will be another challenge for us.” The Eagles held Mayon to 22 yards last week.
Defensively, AU is second in the GLIAC in points allowed per game (12.8), which also is seventh-best in Division II. In the last four games, AU has allowed just 30 points and went nearly three full games between allowing a touchdown. The Eagle “D” has held all six of its foes to under their current season points per game average. Michigan Tech is averaging 25.3 points per game.
“Points allowed is the most important, the one that counts,” Owens said. “We’ve talked about the formula – we’ve played a lot of guys, we’re in attack mode. We’re setting our defense up with great field positions. What we’ve been doing, we need to continue to do.”
Coverage of Ashland University Eagles athletics is produced in partnership with OhioHealth, the official sports medicine provider for Ashland University.
