Dante Basanese

HOUGHTON — Despite being nationally-ranked at No. 24, Saturday was not the Michigan Tech Huskies football team’s day as they fell to Upper Iowa, 21-14, at Kearly Stadium for Homecoming.

Michigan Tech (3-1) saw the defense record three turnovers and carried a 7-0 lead after the first quarter, but six penalties for 70 yards, along with a 21-point outburst in the second quarter by Upper Iowa (2-1), proved to be too much to overcome.

Penalties were also an issue for the Peacocks, who racked up 96 penalty yards from 10 flags, but the offensive output of 345 yards in 70 plays and just two punts on the day was enough to spoil the Huskies’ three-game win streak. The Peacocks also nearly doubled the time of possession in the first half, holding the Huskies to just 10:34 minutes on offense.

“Overall, we did not play Michigan Tech football. We had way too many mistakes, took some terrible penalties and put ourselves in bad situations,” Huskies coach Dan Mettlach said. “Give Upper Iowa credit, I thought they executed better, they were more physical than we were and this game just didn’t go our way, and a lot of that was self-inflicted.”

MTU captain defensive back Dante Basanese of Iron Mountain registered a fumble recovery and an interception.

Huskies quarterback Alex Bueno finished the day 11-for-22 for 89 yards and a touchdown, with Kingsford’s Nic Nora leading the receivers with 34 yards on three receptions. Jake Rueff had 18 carries for 81 yards.

The Huskies will enter the bye week with a 3-1 non-conference ledger before opening GLIAC play on the road at Wayne State on Saturday, Oct. 4. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. Eastern time.