AMHERST, Mass. - The Northern Illinois University football team scored a season-high 45 points and rushed for 318 yards in a 45-3 victory at McGuirk Alumni Stadium against the Massachusetts Minutemen Wednesday night.

"I loved how guys stepped up and made plays tonight," said head coach Thomas Hammock after the Huskies' second win in the last three games. "Offensively we scored the most points we've scored all year and that's something we can build off of going forward. Our players worked really hard at practice to keep trying to play football the way we know how."

Quarterback Jalen Macon (Nashville, Tenn./UAPB) made his first start at NIU and accounted for four touchdowns. Macon rushed for a game-high 98 yards and three touchdowns, adding 73 passing yards and a touchdown. He is the first NIU quarterback since Rocky Lombardi in the 2021 Mid-American Conference championship game to have three rushing touchdowns in a game. Chavon Wright (Opa Locka, Fla./Charleston) added 86 yards on 12 carries with a touchdown.

"We felt like with the gameplan we had that we got everything we wanted tonight," Macon said. "At the end of the day, if we got the run game going we were going to stick with that. Everything was on us tonight. We stuck to the attention to details and made sure everything was efficient."

NIU (3-7, 2-4 MAC) got off to a fast start as freshman linebacker Kimar Nelson (Fort Wayne, Ind./Wayne) blocked a Keegan Andrews punt from midfield, giving the Huskies the ball at the UMass 25 with 12:17 left in the first quarter. Andrew Glass (Wheeling, W.Va./Kent State) made a 37-yard field goal to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead at the 10:41 mark. The Huskies went up 10-0 with 4:53 to go when Macon ran in a 13-yard touchdown, capping an 11-play, 66-yard drive that took 5:06 off the clock. Macon had 29 rushing yards on the drive with Wright adding 31, including a 22-yard run that got the Huskies to the UMass 32 yardline.

UMass (0-10, 0-6 MAC) drove down to the NIU 21 on its next drive, highlighted by a 21-yard pass from AJ Hairston to Brandon Hood. The Minutemen had 4th-and-2 from the NIU 21 and went for it on the first play of the second quarter. Hairston's pass fell incomplete and the Huskies took the ball over on downs. NIU took advantage of the turnover and hit it's longest pass play of the year to go up 17-0. On 2nd-and-8 from the NIU 33 Macon hit Elijah Porter (Ankeny, Iowa/Centennial) over the middle for a 67-yard touchdown with 11:42 to go in the first half, Porter's first career score and Macon's first passing touchdown as a Huskie.

The Huskies scored two more touchdowns in the first half. The first came after a 49-yard UMass field goal miss. NIU drove x yards on 10 plays with Wright punching in a one-yard touchdown run to make the score 24-0 with 2:29 to play in the half. On the Minutemen's ensuing possession Lance Ingold (Rochester, Ill./Rochester) sacked Brandon Rose, forcing a fumble that Dasean Dixon (Washington, D.C./Albany) recovered at the UMass 13 yardline with 2:00 to go. Macon ran the ball twice on the drive, one carry for 12 yards and the second for a one-yard touchdown run to put NIU ahead 31-0.

NIU quickly went up 38-0 in the third quarter. The Huskies drove 73 yards in six plays with Macon scoring his third touchdown of the night on a 36-yard run at the 12:05 mark. The Huskies defense forced another turnover on downs on the Minutemen's next possession as Filip Maciorowski (Carol Stream, Ill./Glenbard West) stopped Hairston short on fourth down to give NIU the ball at its own 48 yardline. Two plays later, Brady Davidson (Columbia, Mo./Rock Bridge) found Gary Givens (Tampa, Fla./Valparaiso) in the end zone for a 31-yard touchdown reception to make the score 45-0 with 8:16 to go in the third.

UMass got on the board with 6:13 to play in the game. Derek Morris capped a 12-play, 73-yard drive with a 44-yard field goal to make the final score 45-3.

The Huskies had 433 yards of total offense Wednesday night to UMass' 262. NIU allowed just 65 rushing yards, its second-fewest total of the season. NIU had the ball for 33:41 for its highest time of possession, including 10:20 in the fourth quarter to seal the win. Jacob Finley (Birmingham, Ala./Hoover) led NIU with a career-high 14 tackles, adding a tackle for loss. Maciorowski had 11 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.

"We just went out there this week and played with confidence," said Finley. "After a loss like last week, people could have had their head down but Coach was adamant about keeping our heads up. We all played together, working off the energy of the offense and playing well on special teams."

The Huskies return to Huskie Stadium on Tuesday, Nov. 18 to take on the Western Michigan Broncos. Kickoff is at 6:00 p.m. CT with the game telecast on ESPN2 and broadcast locally on 94-9 WDKB. Tickets are on sale now at NIUHuskies.com/tickets or by calling the NIU Ticket Office at 815-753-PACK (7225).

—NIU—