CALEDONIA, Mich. — The Davenport football team has always risen to the occasion on homecoming, but today's performance set a new standard. DU improved to 6-0 all-time on homecoming Saturday and beat visiting Northwood 51-17 in the process. The Panthers are currently 3-0 overall this season and Northwood falls to 2-2 overall. The Timberwolves made the move to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference in 2022, so this non-conference game showed the offensive firepower that Panthers fans have been yearning for over the years.
Jason Whittaker got his first start of the season at quarterback and put up numbers rarely seen before at Davenport. He finished 21-of-29 passing for 360 yards and a school record five touchdown passes. He also set a record accounting for six touchdowns with a one-yard touchdown run in the contest. Roy Livingstone tied a school record with three touchdown receptions and finished with five catches for 111 yards. The Panthers as a team racked up a school record with 30 first downs and 586 total yards of offense.
The Davenport offense opened up with three straight scoring drives in the first quarter. They totaled 185 yards in the quarter on 19 plays. Livingstone caught a 32-yard touchdown pass at the 12:08 mark for a 7-0 lead. Brendan Sherrod caught a 31-yard touchdown pass at the 7:16 mark for a 14-0 lead. Brandon Gielow made it 17-0 with a 25-yard field goal at the 2:23 mark.
Max Gonos got Northwood on the board with a 42-yard field goal with 14:11 left in the second quarter. Whittaker got his one-yard rushing touchdown with 7:12 left in the quarter for a 24-3 lead. Livingstone then hauled in a 30-yard touchdown pass with 1:39 left until halftime for a 31-3 advantage.
Northwood scored on their first drive of the second half but Davenport answered right back. Facing 4th-and-14 at the Northwood 36-yard line, Whittaker found Livingstone for 28 yards to the Northwood 8. The next play was the fifth passing touchdown for Whittaker on a slant pattern to Preston Smith for the eight-yard score and a 44-10 lead. Nate Gomez was intercepted by Elysee Mbem-Bosse after the pass was tipped by Christian Jones at the Northwood 25-yard line on the first play of the next drive. Caleef Jenkins ran three times for 25 yards including a one-yard touchdown run with 7:46 left in the third quarter for a 51-10 lead.
John Hall caught two touchdown passes in the quarter for the Timberwolves including one from 17 yards out to make it a final of 51-17 with 1:23 left in the quarter. The fourth quarter featured no scoring as Davenport had two possessions. They drove 80 yards in 12 plays using 7:28 but gave the ball over on downs.
The Davenport defense picked off three passes on the day. Jones had seven tackles and returned an interception 10 yards. Nick Cain had five tackles and an interception on a diving catch wrestling it away from the wide receiver. Mbem-Bosse had the previously mention interception and finished with five tackles. Payton Mitchell led the defense with eight tackles. Northwood managed 246 total yards and were 4-of-13 on third down.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.