The Great Lakes Men’s DII Conference is coming down to one game, this coming weekend. Grand Valley State University finished their regular season 6-0 in the North, while Xavier of Cincinnati finished undefeated also, however they did tie two games, including October 25 against Kent State.

GVSU Head Coach John Mullett sees those tough games for Xavier and sees reason for concern.

“It’s a little bit hard for me to figure out where we stand,” said Mullett, whose team team outscored opponents by a per-game overage of 48-7. “This year we’ve got a pretty good returning team, but we haven’t played anyone who really challenged us. I think Xavier, with Kent State and Marshall in their league, have been challenged a lot more.”

GVSU weren’t expected to do much last year but Mullett took a freshman-heavy team to the playoffs, where they were put to the sword by a bigger, more physical Kent Sate.

“Last year we were very young and I didn’t expect that we would make playoffs, but we did and we used it as a learning experience,” said Mullett.

GVSU is a young, quick team that needs to avoid playing a face-to-face smash-mouth game - they did that last year against Kent State and played into their hands.

Up front Dave Giese has been an imposing presence. Moved from No. 8 to lock, he sets the tone physically. Mullett put Tyler McIntyre in at No. 8. Shorter and lighter than most at that position, he makes up for it with attitude and heart.

“He does not know how to back down,” said Mullett.

In the backs they are speedy. French-trained flyhalf John Ouellette, who finished high school in Michigan before enrolling at GVSU, runs the threequarters. Corey Robinett is a freshman wing/fullback who has an excellent kicking boot. Dylan Bergbower is a former prop who passed on DI football offers to play rugby, and was promptly moved from prop to inside center, where he has caused defenses all sorts of problems.

But what sort of problems can they give Xavier. The Cincinnati-based college has battled through a rough season that saw them tie both Kent State and Marshall, and beat them in close games, as well.

Head Coach Shaun Gaffney isn’t sure how strong his league is, either, and expects a tough match.

“Our problem is injuries,” he said. “We played without five starters against Kent State due mostly to injuries. Then we lost our best back to a bicep injury and our tighthead at halftime.”

Still they held on for a tie. Xavier has run into a lot of shoulder and back injuries, and that could be part of the difference.

“John's teams are always well coached and very athletic,” said Gaffney. “We'll have our hands full. But we will give it our all. We're always the smaller team but our focus this season has been to maximize or fitness efforts to counter the size difference.”

Xavier gets two starters back for this weekend, but not all of them.