DEKALB, Ill. – Western Michigan gained 636 yards of total offense as the Broncos spoiled Senior Night for the Northern Illinois University Huskies with a 42-21 victory on Tuesday night (Nov. 23) at Huskie Stadium. Kaleb Eleby threw for 338 yards and five touchdowns for the Broncos.
 
"It was a tough game," said NIU head coach Thomas Hammock. "Credit to Western Michigan, they played well, they played better than we did tonight. We will move forward, we will watch the tape, make corrections and try to look for ways that we can improve as a football team heading into next week."
 
NIU (8-4, 6-2 MAC) rushed for 268 yards in the contest, led by Jay Ducker's (Bellevue, Neb./Bellevue West) team-high 104 yards. Clint Ratkovich (Crete, Ill./Crete-Monee/Western Illinois) ran for 97 yards and a touchdown while Antario Brown (Savannah, Ga./Beach) had a pair of rushing touchdowns and 77 yards. Huskies' starting quarterback Rocky Lombardi (Clive, Iowa/Valley/Michigan State) was sidelined due to injury and true freshman Ethan Hampton (Elburn, Ill./Aurora Christian) made his first career start while playing in just his second game.
 
Western Michigan (7-5, 4-4 MAC) converted a Huskie turnover into points on its first possession of the game. The Broncos went 72 yards in 11 plays, capped by a one-yard touchdown pass from Eleby to Brett Borske to give Western Michigan a 7-0 lead midway through the opening quarter.
 
On its first play from scrimmage in the second quarter, Ratkovich went 96 yards for a touchdown to even the score. A Western Michigan punt pinned NIU deep in its own territory, but it took the Huskies just one play to score as Ratkovich recorded the second-longest touchdown run in school history, and the longest in 87 years, since Huskie Hall of Famer Reino Nori holds the NIU record for the longest touchdown run with a 99-yard score on Nov. 17, 1934, against Wisconsin-Whitewater.
 
The Broncos went back in front just three plays later as Eleby connected with Skyy Moore for the first of their four touchdown connections of the day, this one from 50 yards out, giving Western Michigan a 14-7 lead with 10:19 left in the second quarter.
 
On the ensuing kickoff, a NIU fumble gave the ball to Western Michigan with a short field and, four plays later, Eleby found Moore for a six-yard score to give the Broncos a 14-point advantage.
 
Western Michigan added another touchdown with 85 seconds left before halftime. Eleby found Moore again with a 29-yard touchdown pass on a fourth and four to give the Broncos a 28-7 lead at halftime.
 
With 10 seconds left in the third quarter, Eleby and Moore connected for their fourth touchdown of the contest from 12 yards out as the Broncos added to their advantage.
 
Moore finished the game with 12 catches for 206 yards and four touchdowns.
 
In the fourth quarter, Brown had a pair of long touchdown runs, scoring from 44 and 41 yards. Sean Tyler had a 12-yard rushing touchdown for the Broncos in the final quarter.
 
Tyler ran for a team-high 115 yards on 17 carries for Western Michigan.
 
C.J. Brown (Canton, Mich./Walled Lake Western) made a game-high 14 tackles for NIU, including nine solo efforts, while JaVaughn Byrd (Milwaukee, Wis./Rufus King) added 10 tackles, with eight solo.
 
Up next for NIU will be a trip to Ford Field in Detroit, Mich., for the Mid-American Conference Championship Game on Saturday, Dec. 4. Game time is set for 11 a.m. CT and the game will be air on ESPN. NIU will face the winner of Saturday's MAC East showdown between Kent State and Miami (Ohio).
 
-- NIU --