LARAMIE, Wyo. – Junior running back
Telly Johnson Jr. (Augusta, Ga./Hephzibah) rushed for a season-high 139 yards and a touchdown but the Northern Illinois University football team couldn't stop the Wyoming Cowboys' rushing attack in a 41-23 loss at Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Johnson was 20 yards shy of tying his career-high of 159 set last season at Eastern Michigan. His rushing touchdown was his third in as many games. Quarterback
Taron Dickens (Miami, Fla./Western Carolina) was 24-for-44 passing for 216 yards and a touchdown. Wide receiver
DeAree Rogers (Lexington, S.C./Lenoir-Rhyne) tied his season-high in receptions with 11 for 89 yards.
"We got what we wanted at times on offense, but penalties and mistakes hurt us today," said head coach
Rob Harley following the game. "You're not going to be able to come into a road stadium against a good team and not execute on each play. We talked about working good-on-good this week so we could force Wyoming into situations where they had to strain and execute."
Wyoming (4-3, 3-1 MW) opened the scoring with a 37-yard field goal by Erik Sandvik, giving the Cowboys a 3-0 lead with 9:20 left in the first quarter. The Cowboys drove to the NIU 19, but cornerback
Dev'ion Reynolds and linebacker
Brady Kerperin combined to take down Wyoming running back Markel Holman for a three-yard gain on third and 10 to force the kick. Quarterback Tyler Hughes extended the lead to 10-0 at the 5:39 mark, running 53 yards for the game's first touchdown.
NIU (0-6, 0-2 MW) got on the board early in the second quarter. A 12-yard Dickens run, followed by a 26-yard carry by Johnson got the Huskies into Wyoming territory at the 43 yardline. The Huskies got to the Wyoming 27 yardline where kicker
JJ Schlenhardt (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine South) made a 44-yard field goal to make the score 10-3 with 11:33 to play in the first half.
The Cowboys responded quickly as Hughes capped a four-play, 75-yard drive with a 24-yard touchdown run to give Wyoming a 17-3 lead with 9:35 remaining in the opening half. NIU then embarked on one of its longest drives of the season. The Huskies ran 16 plays over 70 yards to get to the Wyoming five yardline. Dickens completed six passes on the drive, including a 13-yard pitch to wide receiver
Afy Ibekwe (Anoka, Minn./Anoka) and a 15-yard strike to Rogers. After back-to-back incompletions on second and goal and third and goal, Schlenhardt converted a 22-yard field goal at the 2:41 mark to get NIU within 11 at 17-6. Sandvik made a 24-yard field goal as time expired to give Wyoming a 20-6 lead.
NIU got off to a fast start in the second half. Johnson ripped off a 28-yard run on the first play from scrimmage to get the Huskies to the Wyoming 47 yardline. A 10-yard pass from Dickens to Rogers got NIU to the Cowboys' 33 but the Huskies only picked up four more yards on the drive. Schlenhardt made his longest field goal of the season, a 46-yard attempt, to make the score 20-9 with 12:58 to play in the third quarter.
Wyoming drove 75 yards in five plays on its first drive of the second half, with Hughes scoring his third rushing touchdown from six yards out to give the Cowboys' a 27-9 lead at the 10:25 mark. NIU got back within 12, 27-15, on a Johnson 13-yard touchdown run, capping a 14-play 75-yard drive with 3:58 left in the quarter. Wide receiver
George Dimopoulos (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) ran in the two-point conversion to make the score 27-17.
The Cowboys tacked on two more rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter to go up 41-17. With 3:53 to go in the game, Dickens found wide receiver
La'Don Bryant (Savannah, Ga./Benedictine Military) for a 34-yard touchdown pass, his longest completion of the day, to make the final score 41-23.
NIU finished the game with 392 yards of total offense to Wyoming's 510. The Cowboys rushed for 314 yards on the day. Hughes had 183 yards on 12 carries with four touchdowns. Holman added 80 yards on 14 carries.
Defensively, Kerperin led all players with 11 tackles. Cornerback
Yassine Falke (Indianapolis, Ind./Marian) added eight tackles. Linebacker
Jack Murray (Brookfield, Wis./Brookfield East) and defensive back
Avery Jones (Baltimore, Md./Lafayette) each had seven tackles and a half tackle for loss.
"This is the most snaps most of these guys have played, against the best competition any of them have seen in their lives," Harley added. "We just have to continue to put them in challenging situations so they can raise the probability of having to execute in games."
The Huskies are next in action on Saturday, Oct. 24 when NIU hosts Hawai'i at Huskie Stadium for Hall of Fame Weekend. The game will be televised on MW+, the Mountain West's streaming platform. Fans can sign up by
following this link.
Single game seats for Huskie home games start at just $35 for east side general admission tickets. West side general admission seats are $40 while west side reserved seating will begin at $42. All ticket prices will increase by $5 on game day. In addition, the Huskie Stadium Box Office will be cashless on game day, and fans will be unable to select specific locations when purchasing at the box office on the day of game.
