Oct. 20, 2007

Final Stats

MADISON, Wisc. - Wisconsin's P.J. Hill gained 184 yards on the ground and scored two of the Badgers' four rushing TDs, and the UW defense held Northern Illinois to minus 13 yards rushing to power Wisconsin to a 44-3 win over Northern Illinois Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium.

Northern Illinois fell to 1-7 on the season while Wisconsin snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 6-2.

Wisconsin scored 31 points in the first half as Northern Illinois punted six times and earned just two first downs through the first 30 minutes.

UW opened its scoring on a 25-yard pass from Tyler Donovan to Graham Garrett at the 10:11 mark and got a 72-yard run from Hill to jump ahead 14-0.

They extended the lead to 31-0 before half but got just one touchdown drive in the second half along with two of Taylor Mehlhaff's three field goals on the day.

"By the end of the game, we had a converted offensive guard (Dan Keller) and a 220-pound defensive end (Mike Lepper) playing at our two defensive tackle spots," said NIU Head Coach Joe Novak, who continues to discount the Huskies' long injury list while focusing on the players on the field. "That's what you do. You find a way. We knew it was going to be tough...but we didn't block and we didn't tackle. You don't do that, I don't care what your schemes are. It's awful hard to beat a good football team when you're not doing those basic things."

NIU tailbacks Justin Anderson and David Bryant were limited to 11 yards on 15 carries in the game. Matt Simon led the Huskies' receiving efforts as he caught four balls for 86 yards, including a 38-yarder which set up NIU's lone score of the day, a 34-yard field goal by Chris Nendick with 51 seconds left in the third quarter.

Northern Illinois lost running back Ricky Crider to a broken leg on the very first play of the game, and quarterback Dan Nicholson did not play in the second half after sustaining a concussion. The Huskies entered the game minus nine of their top 11 defensive linemen.

Spencer Williamson, who played the second half for an injured Alex Kube, led NIU with 11 tackles while Zach Larsen had 10 stops for NIU. Cory Hanson recorded the Huskies' sixth interception of the season to stop another Wisconsin drive.

Northern Illinois takes to the road for the fifth time in six weeks next Saturday when they travel to Toledo for a 6 p.m. (Central) start at the Glass Bowl.

-- NIU --