Posted: Oct 11, 2025
UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University football team soared to a 55-10 win over Roosevelt on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals (3-3, 2-0 GLIAC) dominated on offense. They racked up 560 yards of total offense, including 374 yards on the ground against the Lakers (1-4, 0-2 GLIAC).
"Our offensive line is playing at a high level. That is a veteran group. Definitely love when you put 300 yards on the ground and 500 plus two weeks in a row," said head coach Ryan Brady. "This is what we have been capable of all along."
The SVSU offensive line earned Meijer Player of the Game honors for fueling the Cardinals' 7.6 yards per carry average.
Mason McKenzie (Caledonia, Mich. / Caledonia HS) was 13-for-18 through the air with 186 yards and two touchdown passes. He also carried the ball for 58 yards on the ground, adding to the SVSU rushing totals. Terrence Brown Jr. (Detroit, Mich. / Martin Luther King HS) led SVSU on the ground and at receiver. He had 69 yards rushing on three carries and a rushing touchdown, and finished with a team-high 62 yards receiving on three catches.
Jaquan Howard (Chicago, Ill. / Bolingbrook HS) got things rolling for the Cardinals with a 63-yard kick return. That put the ball on the Roosevelt 33-yard line for SVSU's opening drive. Nicholas Patterson (Mooresville, Ind. / Mooresville HS) punched it in from one-yard out to cap the four-play drive, putting the Cardinals ahead 7-0 in the opening two minutes of the game.
Saginaw Valley State got the ball right back. Jamil Thomas (Ypsilanti, Mich. / Huron HS) forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and Josh Rau (Lowell, Mich. / Lowell HS) recovered on the Laker 27.
On the subsequent drive, Nicholas Patterson rushed for a 19-yard touchdown, collecting his second score of the game and increasing the lead to 14-0 with 11:51 left in the first quarter. He finished with seven carries for 51 yards and two touchdowns. He is one of five Cardinal players to rush for at least 50 yards in the game.
Roosevelt responded with a 10-play drive that moved into SVSU territory, but stalled at the 14 and forced the Lakers to attempt a 31-yard field goal. DJ Voltz (Saginaw, Mich. / Carrollton HS) blocked the kick to give the Cardinals the ball on their own 20-yard line with 5:08 left in the first quarter.
McKenzie connected with Brown on a 39-yard pass to the Roosevelt 10-yard line and set up the Michael Jamerson III (Flint, Mich/ Davison HS) touchdown to push the SVSU lead to 21-0 with 1:59 left on the clock. Jamerson III carried a team-high 13 times for 58 yards and two touchdowns.
McKenzie rushed for 21 yards up the middle to push into the Laker half of the field to end the first quarter. He then capped the three-yard drive with a 35-yard dart to Eric Craft (Waterford, Mich. / Waterford Kettering HS) in the first six seconds of the second quarter to move to a 28-0 lead. The score remained there for the remainder of the half as the Cardinals took the four-touchdown lead into the locker room at the break.
The Lakers got on the board to start the third quarter with a three-yard rush by quarterback Zach Zella that capped an 11-play, 75-yard drive and trimmed the deficit to 28-7 with just over 3:30 off the clock in the second half.
The Cardinals responded with a seven-play drive that ended with a 32-yard touchdown pass from McKenzie to Hill that widened the gap back to four scores, 35-7, with 7:48 left in the third.
Jamerson III scored his second touchdown of the game on the next SVSU drive with an eight-yard run that finished an 11-play drive for Saginaw Valley and increased the lead to 41-7.
A defensive stop on a 4th-and-1 play from the Roosevelt 39 by Adom LeDuc (Utica, Mich. / Utica Stevenson HS) and Mason Nickel (Midland, Mich. / Dow HS) to give the Cardinals the ball back.
Brown Jr. scored his only touchdown of the game with a 28-yard rush with 13 seconds left in the quarter that extended the lead to 48-7.
The final touchdown of the game was scored by Howard with a 36-yard run at 11:32 of the fourth quarter to give SVSU its largest lead of the game, 55-7.
The Lakers chewed off nine minutes and 20 seconds off the clock with a 14-play drive that stalled on the SVSU 29-yard line, and Mauricio Escudero made the 46-yard field goal to put the score at 55-10, where it would stay for the remainder of regulation.
Jaden Bevier (Ypsilanti, Mich. / Ypsilanti HS) and James McDonald (Warren, Mich. / De La Salle HS) led the Cardinal defense with seven tackles. McDonald also registered an interception in the second quarter. LeDuc finished with six stops and a pass breakup. Junyoung Chung (Berrien Springs, Mich. / Berrien Springs HS), Nathan Kibambe (Charlotte, N.C. / Georgia Military Academy), Christian Boivin (Traverse City, Mich. / Traverse City West HS), Nickel, and Thomas each totaled five tackles. Thomas added two pass breakups and a forced fumble to his stat line.
UP NEXT: The Cardinals will head west to face Grand Valley State for the Battle of the Valleys next Saturday, October 18, at 2:00 p.m. (ET). It is the first time SVSU will travel to GVSU since 2022.
