DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University Huskies overcame a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter to pull out a 24-21 Homecoming victory over Ohio Saturday at Huskie Stadium.
Trailing 21-9 after Ohio scored on an 11-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Nathan Rourke to Connor Brown on the final play of the third quarter, NIU scored a pair of touchdowns, including a two-point conversion by left tackle
Max Scharping, to earn its fourth Mid-American Conference win of the season.
"This team is battle-tested," said NIU Head Coach
Rod Carey. "All of our games have been four-quarter games. There was no panic [down 21-9]. There was frustration, sure, but no panic."
NIU (4-3 overall, 4-0 MAC) closed the gap to 21-16 with a 12-play, 77-yard drive to start the fourth period. Quarterback
Marcus Childers, who rushed for a career- and team season high 169 yards on 23 carries in the game, went the final 10 yards for the touchdown. The biggest play on the drive came on fourth down and three from the Ohio 34, when Childers hit
D.J. Brown for 11 yards to extend the drive, and the Huskies scored four plays later.
Ohio (3-3, 1-1 MAC) looked to extend its lead but
Sutton Smith and the Huskie defense had other ideas. After the Bobcats drove from their 25 to the NIU 39, Smith recorded his third strip sack of the season when he simultaneously took the ball out of Rourke's hands while sacking him, then recovered the ball for his second fumble recovery of the game.
From its 47-yard line, Childers hit
Jauan Wesley for a 20-yard pick-up, ran for 20 yards on second down and 18, then took advantage of a pass interference call on Ohio to advance to the two-yard line. From there,
Marcus Jones scored to give NIU the lead, and Childers hit Scharping with a lateral which the big (6-6, 320) left tackle ran in for the two-point play.
The Huskie defense forced a three-and-out on Ohio's next possession and the Huskie offense, unlike a week ago at Ball State, ran out the clock for the Homecoming win.
"We had to run the ball to win, and today it was Marcus [Childers] who had the hot hand," Carey said. "The offense was good, the defense was outstanding today, except for the penalties. We were able to stuff the run and make them one dimensional."
The Huskie defense forced three turnovers and held Ohio to just 46 rushing yards. They sacked Rourke four times, led by Smith with two, with
Josh Corcoran and
Jack Heflin also contributing sacks.
Ohio scored on a two-yard run by A.J. Ouellette with 8:39 to play in the second quarter to cap a nine-play, 92-yard drive and take a 7-3 lead. Rourke hit Isiah Cox for a 70-yard completion before he was run down by
Jordan Cole and
Mykelti Williams at the five-yard line. NIU twice looked to have the Bobcats stopped on third and goal plays, but pass interference was called on both occasions, allowing Ohio eight total plays before scoring.
NIU came back with a six-play, 74-yard drive with
D.J. Brown scoring on a 28-yard rush on the jet sweep to give the Huskies a 9-7 lead after the PAT snap was fumbled.
The score stood until the 6:39 mark of the third quarter when Ohio took a 14-9 on a 56-yard completion from Rourke to Cox. They extended the lead to 21-9 with an 11-play, 90-yard drive to close out the third period, helped by three 15-yard penalties on the Huskies.
Kyle Pugh led the Huskie defense with nine tackles, while Smith contributed two sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss, one fumble forced and two recovered.
NIU enjoys an open date next week before traveling to BYU on Saturday, October 27 for its final non-conference game of the season.
-- NIU --
