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Sports · Houghton

Michigan Tech beats Saginaw Valley 27-20 on Jake Rueff’s late touchdown, then comes home to face No. 9 Davenport

The Mitten Daily · November 1, 2026, 5:39 a.m. ET · Houghton

The Sherman Field press box and bleachers at Michigan Tech, seen across a grassy lawn and a fence under tree branches.
Sherman Field at Michigan Tech’s Kearly Stadium in Houghton in July 2017, in a file photo. It does not show Saturday’s game in University Center. Photo: TheCatalyst31 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), cropped and color-adjusted; derivative shared under the same license.

UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. — Jake Rueff ran in from 2 yards out with 1:51 to play, and No. 15 Michigan Tech held on for a 27-20 win at Saginaw Valley State on Saturday in the Huskies’ last road game of the regular season.

Tech never trailed. The win lifts the Huskies to 7-2 overall and 4-1 in the GLIAC, and the defense gave up its fewest points of the season, according to the team’s recap. Saginaw Valley fell to 4-5 and 2-3.

“I’m very proud of our guys. We played right to the very end and stayed in it mentally even when things weren’t necessarily going our way,” Tech coach Dan Mettlach said. He credited the special teams, saying the blocked punts and early field goals played “a huge role in the win.”

How the Huskies won it

Saginaw Valley tied the game at 20 with 4:01 left when Connor Wolf hit Jamison Pelt for a 13-yard touchdown. On the second play of Tech’s next drive, Abram Larner took an end-around 58 yards deep into Cardinals territory. A pass interference penalty moved the ball closer, and Rueff scored. The Cardinals reached the Tech 28 on their last chance but turned it over on downs on fourth-and-13.

Avery Kucharski gave Tech a 6-0 lead with field goals of 34 and 26 yards, and Saginaw Valley tied it at 6 with two field goals of its own. Tech’s first touchdown took five tries from the 1-yard line: the first four went nowhere, an offside penalty moved the ball closer, and quarterback Alex Bueno went over the pile to score on fourth down.

After Obie Sanni’s 34-yard touchdown run tied it again, Dakota Blackwell blocked a Saginaw Valley punt and Jadon Bender scooped it up for an 11-yard touchdown with five seconds left in the third quarter, putting Tech ahead 20-13.

By the numbers

Saginaw Valley outgained Tech 366 yards to 251 and held the ball for 32:23. The Huskies had four sacks and gave up none, and neither team turned the ball over. Bueno completed 10 of 18 passes for 91 yards. Abram Larner had 60 rushing yards on two carries and three catches for 62 yards. Terrence Martin led the defense with 10 tackles, and Blackwell, who blocked two punts, had eight, as did Jamison Stamps.

For the Cardinals, Wolf threw for 278 yards, Sanni ran for 76 and JT Webber caught five passes for 87 yards.

Tech closes the regular season with two games at Kearly Stadium’s Sherman Field in Houghton, starting Saturday, Nov. 7, at noon against No. 9 Davenport.

Sources:
Michigan Tech Athletics, “#15 Huskies win at SVSU in final road game” (Oct. 31, 2026; recap, box score, scoring summary, Mettlach quote), https://michigantechhuskies.com/news/2026/10/31/football-15-huskies-win-at-svsu-in-final-road-game.aspx
Photo: Sherman Field, Michigan Tech, TheCatalyst31, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sherman_Field,_Michigan_Tech.jpg

Houghton

Tags: Michigan Tech · Football · GLIAC · Saginaw Valley State · Houghton · College football

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