The Grand Valley State University football team dominated in its last match up against Hillsdale College, winning 44-27 in the NCAA Division II playoffs last fall. However, Laker fans better remember what transpired in the 2009 regular-season meeting between the two programs.

Thanks to a touchdown with less than a minute to play, the Chargers handed GVSU a 27-24 defeat at Hillsdale last October. Previously, the Lakers had not lost a regular-season game since 2004.

When No. 11 Hillsdale travels to Lubbers Stadium Saturday night, the team will face off against an opponent still eager to continue to avenge last season’s loss.

“Just because we beat them bad the last time we played them, we still have a sour taste in our mouth from the first time when we lost to them because we shouldn’t have lost to them,” said senior running back Justin Sherrod. “Keeping that in our mind is going to help us out a lot.”

The Lakers, ranked No. 1 in the latest AFCA top-25, showed they have room for improvement in last week’s 34-31 win over West Texas A&M University.

“There’s enough things on both sides of the ball that we need to work on to attempt to get better,” said GVSU head coach Matt Mitchell. “We haven’t quite even come close to reaching our potential. The mindset has got to be – from players and coaches – are we just satisfied with beating the No. 8-ranked team in the nation, or are we going to try work to get better?”

As was the case against West Texas, GVSU head coach Matt Mitchell said containing Hillsdale’s offense will be important to any Laker success. Mitchell said Hillsdale does a great job of running its ball-control offense, which can limit the amount of time GVSU’s offense sees the field.

The Chargers are led by senior quarterback Troy Weatherhead, a Grand Rapids native. Senior receivers Andre Holmes and Mike Blanchard and sophomore running back Joe Glendening also factor heavily into the Charger offense.

“(Weatherhead is) very, very efficient,” Mitchell said. “He’s arguably, heading into this year, one of the top quarterbacks in the GLIAC, if not the top quarterback in the GLIAC.”

In last week’s 35-17 non-conference victory over Ferris State University, Weatherhead tossed for three touchdowns while throwing only four incomplete passes.

Senior safety Matt Bakker said Hillsdale’s offense does not make many mistakes, so GVSU’s defensive performance must be nearly perfect in order to contain it.

“They’re not going to be a team that’s going to beat themselves,” he said. “They’re going to count on you making mistakes, and then they’re going to capitalize on them.”

The GVSU starting defense held Hillsdale scoreless in the first half of last year’s playoff game before the Chargers picked up all of their points in the second half against the defensive backups.

Bakker, who recorded four total tackles in that game, said his team’s success will rely on its intensity level Saturday night.

“We’re going to just make sure that we come to play,” he said. “Because I think that was the major difference between the first and second game (last year), is that we actually came out with a little more intensity, a little more focus, that entire week and it kind of obviously paid off in the game.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday.

sports@lanthorn.com