Sports · Georgetown Township
GVSU vs. Ferris State: Bulldogs erase a 17-0 hole and beat the Lakers 41-34 in the Anchor-Bone Classic
ALLENDALE, Mich. — Grand Valley State had top-ranked Ferris State down 17-0 after one quarter Saturday. The Bulldogs answered with 34 unanswered points and held on for a 41-34 win in the Anchor-Bone Classic at Lubbers Stadium.
The crowd of 16,344 was the ninth-largest in the stadium’s history, GVSU said. Ferris State, the two-time defending NCAA Division II national champion, improved to 7-0 overall and 3-0 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and has now won 37 straight games, according to The Torch, Ferris State’s student newspaper. The No. 13 Lakers fell to 5-2 and 1-2 with their second loss in a row.
Sophomore quarterback Wyatt Bower carried Ferris back. He ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns, FloFootball reported, and threw a 32-yard scoring pass to Tae Boyd. His last touchdown, a 53-yard run 1:28 into the fourth quarter, was his longest of the season and put the Bulldogs up 41-24, The Torch reported.
Grand Valley built its lead on Ferris mistakes. Mathew Bacik opened the scoring with a career-long 50-yard field goal. Linebacker Jimmy Downs then forced a fumble that Tyus Jackson recovered, and quarterback Andrew Schuster hit Jake Vermaas for an 18-yard touchdown. Ryder Gravenhof recovered another fumble at the Ferris 15, and Schuster found Tommy Donovan from 6 yards out, according to GVSU’s recap.
It was the first time in almost two seasons that Ferris had trailed by two scores or more, The Torch reported. The last time was the 2024 national semifinals against Slippery Rock.
The comeback started early in the second quarter with Bower’s 3-yard touchdown run. Zak Ahern scored from 10 yards after an interception by freshman Bill Brown, and field goals by Jay Cady and Eoin O’Sullivan gave the Bulldogs a 20-17 halftime lead, according to the scoring summary. Bower’s 16-yard run and his pass to Boyd made it 34-17 late in the third quarter.
Senior receiver Kellen Reed ended the run with a 61-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Reed, who had topped 100 receiving yards in each of the Lakers’ first six games, according to GVSU, finished with four catches for 75 yards. After Bower’s long run, Bacik kicked a 38-yard field goal, and Schuster threw 8 yards to Kellen Russell-Dixon with 4:17 left to cut the lead to 41-34. Ferris then picked up a key first down on third-and-3 when Grand Valley was flagged for offside, GVSU said, and the Bulldogs ran out the clock.
Ferris outgained Grand Valley 423 yards to 305, including 286 to 132 on the ground, according to the box score. Each team committed two turnovers.
Schuster completed 18 of 28 passes for 173 yards and four touchdowns, with one interception. Russell-Dixon ran 12 times for 98 yards. Linebacker Keegan Sell led the Lakers with 11 tackles, and Jackson had eight tackles, a sack and the fumble recovery.
The win was Ferris State’s third straight in the series and its 10th in the last 14 meetings dating to 2016, The Torch reported. Grand Valley still leads the all-time series, which GVSU put at 32-25-1 before Saturday, as The Mitten Daily noted in its preview.
Grand Valley plays at Saginaw Valley State at 2 p.m. next Saturday. Ferris State hosts No. 14 Michigan Tech at 1 p.m. at Top Taggart Field in Big Rapids.
Sources:
Grand Valley State Athletics, “GVSU Drops 41-34 Decision To Ferris State,” Oct. 17, 2026 (recap, box score, scoring summary, team statistics, attendance, next game), https://gvsulakers.com/news/2026/10/17/football-gvsu-drops-41-34-decision-to-ferris-state.aspx
FloFootball, R. R. Ellis, “Ferris State Vs. GVSU Football: 41-34 Final Score, Highlights,” Oct. 17, 2026 (Bower rushing yards and touchdowns, records), https://www.flofootball.com/articles/16252613-ferris-state-football-score-vs-gvsu-live-updates-highlights
The Torch (Ferris State University), Nolan Matthews, “Bulldogs take home the Anchor-Bone trophy,” Oct. 17, 2026 (37-game win streak, series record since 2016, first two-score deficit since 2024 semifinal, Bower’s longest run, Michigan Tech next), https://fsutorch.com/2026/10/17/bulldogs-take-home-the-anchor-bone-trophy/
MLive, “Top-ranked Ferris State football rallies back to fend off Grand Valley State,” Oct. 17, 2026 (two-time defending Division II champions), https://www.mlive.com/sports/2026/10/top-ranked-ferris-state-football-rallies-back-to-fend-off-grand-valley-state.html
Photo: Robert Mathews, “Lubbersstadiumstudentsection.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lubbersstadiumstudentsection.jpg
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