OXFORD, Ohio – The Miami University RedHawks claimed their second consecutive Mallory Cup win with a defensive stand in the final minute to defeat the Northern Illinois University Huskies, 27-24, Saturday at Yager Stadium.
 
NIU's Marcus Childers, who took over for starter Ross Bowers late in the second quarter after Bowers went out with an injury, accounted for all three of the Huskies' touchdowns. He threw for 144 yards on 14-of-23 passing, including a 10-yard score to Cole Tucker in the fourth quarter, and ran for two touchdowns on runs of one and three yards.
 
After the Huskies' third loss by seven points or less, NIU head coach Thomas Hammock said the Huskies' came up a few plays short against Miami.
 
"We have to play fundamentally sound football," Hammock said. "We don't have enough margin for error right now. We're going to keep trying to play cleaner. We cleaned up our penalties [one for five yards], we didn't have any turnovers, we've got to keep working. Today Miami made one more play than us."
 
Trailing 27-17 after the RedHawks' Sam Sloman made a pair of fourth-quarter field goals, NIU quarterback Childers connected with Tucker on a 10-yard touchdown pass to bring the Huskies within three, 27-24 with 2:44 to play.
 
The NIU defense forced a Miami punt, but the RedHawks defense responded with a sack on third-and-two. Childers' fourth-down pass fell incomplete and Miami was able to run out the clock. The RedHawks improved to 3-4 on the season, 2-1 in the MAC, while NIU fell to 2-5, 1-2. 
     
NIU started freshman walk-on Nick Rattin, sophomore Vinny Labus and converted safety Marshé Terry at linebacker Saturday, as all three of the senior linebackers that entered preseason camp as a strength of the Huskie defense are out due to injury. Rattin made eight tackles and broke up a pass to back up safety Mykelti Williams, who led NIU with 10 stops on the day. Labus had seven stops, a sack and a pass break-up, and Terry contributed four tackles. NIU held Miami to just 71 rushing yards on 36 carries in the game.
 
"We've been dealing with injuries but we're not going to use that as an excuse," Hammock said. "The defense is playing well with the guys they have. That was a freshman walk on starting at linebacker (Nick Rattin) and he did a good job. We didn't score enough to help our defense. We knew that touchdown before halftime was going to bite us."
  
NIU led 10-0 with 3:08 to play in the first half after Childers scored on a one-yard run to complete a 13-play, 34-yard drive. Kicker John Richardson started the scoring for NIU with a 25-yard field goal at the end of the first quarter.  Meanwhile, the Huskie defense was bottling up the Miami offense before the RedHawks scored on a one-yard run by Jaylon Bester with 36 seconds to play in the first half after a 10-play, 75-yard drive. Prior to that drive, NIU had held Miami to just 21 total yards on 15 plays. The RedHawks finished the half with 11 rushing yards on 14 carries and four first downs but found a formula for success on the final drive that they would carry into the second half.
 
The RedHawks took their first lead of the game on the first drive of the second half on a 45-yard pass from quarterback Brett Gabbert to James Maye to complete an eight-play, 90-yard drive.
 
The Huskies re-took the lead on its next possession. Childers hit freshman Michael Love for a 38-yard completion to the one and scored in from three yards out with 6:47 on the clock. Richardson's PAT made it 17-14 NIU.
 
Miami responded with a nine-play, 62-yard drive to take the lead for good. Quarterback Brett Gabbert hit Jalen Walker on a 40-yard pass play to the one and Bester scored from one yard out three plays later for a 21-17 margin.
 
Tucker, who totaled six catches for 82 yards to lead NIU, scored the first touchdown of his Huskie career, and freshman Michael Love had his best receiving day with three catches for 60 yards. Harbison gained 83 yards on 26 carries to lead all NIU rushers. The Huskies finished with 350 yards of total offense on 78 plays, including 235 passing, and converted seven of their 16 third down attempts.
 
After playing five of its first seven games on the road, NIU returns home next Saturday when the Huskies play host to Akron in the 113^th Homecoming game in school history.  Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN3. Tickets for the Homecoming game are on sale now at NIUHuskies.com/tickets for $25 (East Side) or $30 (West Side).
 
-- NIU --