BLOG 55: Parrish sparks Ferris to thrilling win over Greyhounds

By Sandy Gholston

Ferris State quarterback Kyle Parrish runs a play in practice in Big Rapids (Photo/Sandy Gholston)

INDIANAPOLIS – Kyle Parrish has come a long ways for a guy who entered fall training camp as the newcomer battling three veterans for the starting quarterback position.

Parrish, a native of Garden Grove, Calif., has since worked his way up the depth chart and an injury suffered by starter Tom Schneider, Saturday, unexpectedly gave the junior-college transfer a platform to showcase his skills. Parrish entered the game early in the first half and put on a show. He threw for 404 yards on 26-of-41 passes with four touchdowns to lift the Bulldogs to a 31-24 win over Indianapolis in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game at Key Stadium in Indiana.

“I just kind of felt kind of like I hadn’t been contributing to our success and I think that was one of the things that made it so nice for me to finally get out there,” Parrish said. “A team is only as good as its backup and, as a backup, you always have to make sure you’re ready to step in because you never know when that opportunity is going to pop up.”

Parrish was sharp from the moment he entered the game as he tossed his first touchdown pass of the game as he and Seth Hubbard connected on a 13-yard pass. That tied the score at 7-7 at 14:35 of the first quarter. At 4:23, still in the second quarter, Parrish found Rahseem Jones-Salaam on a 64-yard touchdown pass to put Ferris up 14-7 at the end of the first half.

Later, with the game tied at 17-17, Parrish found Cole Meredith who found the end zone to cap the 44-yard pass play to put the Bulldogs up 24-17 at 5:29 of the fourth quarter.

The Greyhounds again answered to set the stage for late-game heroics.

Forty-four again proved good for Parrish and the Bulldogs as he launched a rocket-like shot deep in the end zone. Hubbard and Tim Hogue set up shop in the back of the end zone before Hubbard hauled in the pass for the game-winning score with 18 seconds left on the game clock.

It was a great cap to an amazing performance by Parrish.

“Kyle Parrish. What can you say? He had an amazing performance,” said senior All-American defensive tackle Jake Visser of Parrish, who also added 73 yards rushing on nine carries.

If you have any questions, ideas or comments feel free to contact Sandy Gholston at sgholston2@netzero.com