The Grand Valley State football team defeated GLIAC rival Davenport on Saturday.
ALLENDALE - Is Brady Drogosh a quarterback or a running back?
The Grand Valley State redshirt sophomore led the team in rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns on Saturday afternoon in a 37-14 win over Davenport University in front of 15,180 fans.
“I still say quarterback,” said Drogosh, who transferred from Cincinnati before this season. “Managing the offense snap-by-snap and controlling things at the line of scrimmage … I still consider myself a quarterback. It was fun to get out there and run the ball today. I had a few passing opportunities; one didn’t go my way.”
Drogosh ran for scores of 17, 6 and 12 yards. He led the team with eight carries for 74 yards. He was 1-of-2 passing; one was an interception.
“Tremendous balance and tremendous run-pass early on,” GVSU coach Scott Wooster said. “When we got ahead of the sticks, we were rollin’.”
No. 14 Grand Valley State improves to 4-1 and 1-0 in the GLIAC. The Lakers are now 8-0 all-time against Davenport (0-1, 2-2).
Davenport jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a 10-yard run by Kayden Collins. But GVSU would reel off three-straight scores on touchdowns by Sean Byrd, Kellen Reed and Drogosh to take a 21-7 lead. Davenport’s Earneset Sanders scored on a 75-yard pass play from QB D’Wan Mathis to make it 21-14 at halftime.
Davenport wouldn’t score again.
In the second half, GVSU got two rushing touchdowns from Drogish and a safety.
The most exciting play of the day was by Reed. On the opening kickoff of the third quarter, Reed caught the ball, dodged several defenders and sprinted 68 yards down the sideline. He laid out kicker Ian Jenkins - who was the last line of defense - and ran into the end zone. But the referee said he stepped out of bounds at the 14-yard line.
No matter. Four plays later, Drogosh scored again.
“Us defensive guys … that fires us up,” said Anthony Cardamone, GVSU senior linebacker from Macomb, Mich. “The second half, we pitched a shutout (defensively), and (Reed’s play) was a big part of it because we got so juiced up watching Kellen running down the sideline and making a (hit).”
Starting quarterback Andrew Schuster led GVSU with 11-of-23 passing for 124 yards and a touchdown. Davenport rotated two QBs. D’Wan Mathis was 3-of-7 passing for 105 yards and Mac VandenHout, of Rockford, Mich., was just 1-of-11 for 4 yards. Kayden Collins led Davenport in rushing with 11 carries for 89 yards.
Cardamone led GVSU with 10 tackles and Jimmy Downs added nine.
First game in two weeks for the Lakers
GVSU had an unusual schedule. It is coming off back-to-back bye weeks. One was scheduled. But the other was because they couldn’t find an opponent to travel up to Michigan.
“I thought that was going to be really difficult,” Wooster said. “It was a major frustration that I couldn’t go get that game. It turned out to be such a blessing. The way we punched in every day and went to work.”
Davenport had an unexpected bye week last week as well.
They had scheduled Lincoln University out of Pennsylvania. But Lincoln suddenly pulled out and said they weren’t coming.
GVSU now has a three-man QB rotation
Wooster likes to have options.
The GVSU coach said all along he planned on rotating his quarterbacks. Now that Zak Olejniczak is healthy, the Lakers will rotate him, Schuster and Drogosh. All three played a lot of minutes on Saturday.
“We have essentially three all-conference quarterbacks,” Wooster said. “They are that kind of talent, that kind of skill (level) and we can’t have them standing on the sideline next to me. They’ve got to play.”
Schuster, a left-handed redshirt freshman from Macomb, Mich., is the best passing option. Drogosh is basically in the game to run the ball and it looks like Olejniczak, a redshirt freshman from Lapeer, Mich., is a combination of both. Although he didn’t attempt a pass on Saturday, which was his first game of the season.
“Their skillsets compliment each other so well,” Wooster said. “Today it was a little more running. A few weeks ago against Black Hills State, it was throwing with Schuster. It’s just going to be a nightmare to prepare for us. … The idea is to be an absolute problem for defensive coordinators.”
Drogosh - who was Michigan Mr. Football in 2022 while playing at Warren DeLaSalle High School - likes the plan.
"When you have a guy like (Schuster) at quarterback, he opens up a lot of things,” he said. “Not only for the receivers, but for me and Zak.”
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: GVSU football tops Davenport with three-quarterback rotation
Category: General Sports
