Marquette Senior High School graduate Austin Ridl rolls out looking to make a play for the Northern Michigan University football team during a game against Saginaw Valley State in the Superior Dome in Marquette on Oct. 5. (Photo courtesy NMU)

DETROIT — Too many familiar storylines popped up for the Northern Michigan University football team on Saturday afternoon as the Wildcats lost at Wayne State to finish 0-11 for the second consecutive season.

NMU lost 30-14 as the Warriors finished at 2-9 overall and 2-5 in the GLIAC, their other league victory coming against one-win Roosevelt that the Wildcats lost to 16-10 in overtime on Oct. 19.

Northern (0-7 GLIAC) fell behind in the opening quarter and again was forced to play catchup the rest of the day.

Both of the Wildcats’ touchdowns came on 1-yard runs, the first by quarterback and Marquette Senior High School graduate Austin Ridl in the second quarter, and the other by linebacker-converted-to-running back Mitch Larkin in the fourth.

As has been the theme for most of the second half of the season, the NMU offense concentrated on rushing the ball. The Wildcats outgained Wayne State 293-247 on the ground, but its 10 yards of passing was paltry compared to the Warriors’ 195.

That meant that WSU finished with an overall 442-303 yardage advantage even as Northern ran 25 more offensive plays and had about a 12 1/2-minute edge in time of possession.

Though Ridl was 0 of 5 passing, he was NMU’s second-leading rusher with 65 yards in 15 carries. Freshman Jahi Wood, the team’s leading rusher this season, also led the way Saturday with 108 yards in 14 attempts. Vince Martin added 42 yards in eight carries, while Negaunee High School product Kai Lacar totaled 39 yards in nine tries.

And a new name at QB was Menominee High School grad Trevor Theuerkauf, who completed 2 of 5 passes for 10 yards and gained three yards rushing in four tries.

Both Theuerkauf and Ridl had an interception, and with a lost fumble, made for three Northern turnovers as WSU had none.

For the Wildcats’ defense, Kennarius Chandler had a tackle for loss and a quarterback hurry, while Justin Schiets also had a tackle for loss as Luc Damiani led in total tackles with eight — including half a tackle credited for loss — and Justin Peake made seven.

NMU got off to a solid start, taking the opening kickoff and marching 55 yards in 10 plays — all rushes — to set up Michael Karlen with a 38-yard field goal try that missed.

Wayne State turned around, and on the second play, QB Champion Edwards went left and ran 80 yards to the end zone for the game’s first points.

After Northern punted on its ensuing possession, Wayne State needed just four plays to hit paydirt again, this time on a 24-yard TD run by XaVior Tyus with 4:49 left in the opening quarter that made it 14-0.

Just like their first time with the ball, the Wildcats churned through the clock on their next possession, eating up almost seven minutes and using 14 plays — 13 runs and an incomplete pass — before Ridl plunged through the middle for his score, cutting the deficit to 14-7 after Karlen’s extra-point boot with just under 13 minutes left in the first half.

That might’ve gotten the Warriors’ attention, as they scored the next two times they had the ball on a 20-yard Rob Brazziel-to-John Rayba pass and a 32-yard Griffin Milovanski field goal to make it 24-7 at halftime.

The field goal was set up after Martin lost a fumble as the Wildcats were driving. With a return on the fumble, Wayne State was set up near midfield.

Much of the second half turned into a defensive struggle. On Northern’s only possession that was entirely in the third quarter, the Wildcats turned the ball over on downs, while on the next one that spanned into the fourth, Ridl threw his interception in the end zone while trying to complete a TD pass less than a minute after the teams changed ends.

Milovanski missed a 52-yard field goal as Wayne State also punted in the third, then the Warriors turned the ball over on downs following the Ridl pickoff.

Finally with just over 10 minutes remaining, the Wildcats showed life when Larkin finished off a seven-play drive with his 1-yard TD plunge. That possession featured six rushes, an incomplete pass and a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty on WSU to pulled Northern within 24-14.

On the ensuing possession, Milovanski kicked a short 19-yard field goal when the Northern defense stopped the home team on three plays after it had 1st-and-goal at the NMU 3-yard line. The three points still left it a two-possession game, 27-14, with 5:47 left.

Knowing they had to pass, the Warriors stopped Theuerkauf as he came in to play QB. He threw an incompletion and was sacked twice to force a punt on 4th-and-27 at the Wildcats’ 8.

Wayne State drove downfield, eating up a couple of precious minutes off the clock as Milovanski hit a 35-yard field goal that still left it at a two-score game, 30-14.

However, at this point Northern had just 2:28 left to mount two scoring drives with its run-oriented offense. And it wasn’t to be as Theuerkauf completed two short passes, ran twice and was finally intercepted near midfield with 84 ticks left on the clock.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.