DEKALB, Ill. – Despite a valiant effort by the Northern Illinois University defense, the NIU Huskies were unable to overcome a 13-point halftime deficit and dropped 26-21 decision to Ohio on Tuesday night at Huskie Stadium.
A fourth-quarter comeback attempt behind true freshman quarterback Tommy Fiedler who replaced injured starter Ryan Graham came up just short as the Huskies fell to 8-4 overall, 6-2 in Mid-American Conference play.
NIU will await the result of Friday’s game between Western Michigan (5-2 MAC) and Toledo(6-1 MAC) to determine who will represent the MAC West Division in the conference championship game in Detroit, Mich., on Friday, Dec. 4. A Western Michigan win over Toledo would put the Huskies in the MAC Championship Game.
“We just dug ourselves too big a hole in the first half,” said NIU Head Coach Rod Carey, who saw the Huskies suffer four losses in a season for the first time since 2009. “We didn’t execute on offense in the first half at all. We’d have a good play and then shoot ourselves in the foot. I thought the defense played really, really well. They did a great job holding them to field goals.”
The Huskie defense did not allow Ohio into the end zone after the 7:52 mark of the second quarter, holding the Bobcats to field goals of 31, 26 and 26 yards by kicker Josiah Yazdani the rest of the way. For the game, OU made five trips into the red zone and came away with field goals four times. Yazdani tried one long field goal as well, but when his 48-yard attempt late in the game was blocked by the Huskies’ Ben Compton, OU’s Kent Berger picked up the ball and ran 20 yards for the first down.
It was that kind of night for NIU, which saw its 22-game November winning streak, its seven-game home winning streak, and its 17-game regular season win streak versus MAC East opponents end.
Ohio built a 20-7 halftime lead as the NIU offense could not get untracked in the first half, and the Huskie special teams put the defense in several difficult positions – once when Chad Beebe muffed a punt and again when a Jake Ambrose punt traveled just 21 yards. The Bobcats took advantage of the field position from those miscues to put 10 points on the board with a 22-yard Yazdani field goal following the former and a five-yard touchdown from Greg Windham to Keith Heitzman after the latter.
The Huskies and Bobcats traded punts on the first two possessions of the second half before NIU cut the Ohio lead to 20-14 with the first score after the break. Graham connected with Golladay from 27 yards out for the touchdown, which was set up by a 62-yard pass from Graham to Juwan Brescacin (Mississauga, Ontario/Culver Academy) two plays earlier.
NIU looked to have momentum after it got the ball back on its 19-yard line, as the Huskie offense advanced to the Ohio 43-yard line. On third-and-11 from the 43, Graham was sacked, fumbled and went down, bringing Fiedler into the game.
Fiedler finished the contest 9-of-17 passing for 113 yards and a touchdown; Graham was 11-of-17 for 142 yards and a score before leaving.
“I thought we had a chance at 20-14,” Carey said. “We got caught on a blitz, Ryan got hurt and we lost some of that momentum we had built. Tommy came in and did a nice job, it just took him a little while and he ran a really nice drive there at the end.”
With 4:15 to go, NIU took over at its own 10-yard line, trailing 26-14, and used 11 plays to go 90 yards for a touchdown. Fiedler connected with junior Kenny Golladay on a fade on fourth-and-six from the Ohio 11 for the touchdown as the Huskies cut the Bobcat lead to one score, 26-21, with 1:45 left.
Golladay finished with six catches for 72 yards and a pair of touchdowns while Brescacin finished with a game-high 114 yards on six catches.
Following the score, the Huskies lined up for an onside kick but Ohio recovered and the Bobcats were able to run out the clock.
Ohio (8-4, 5-3 MAC) scored first in the contest as J.D. Sprague connected with Jordan Reid for a 28-yard score on a fourth-and-three to give the Bobcats an early lead.
NIU evened the contest as the Huskies converted a turnover into a touchdown. Senior Marlon Moore (Mobile, Ala./C.F. Vigor) forced a fumble and senior Cameron Clinton-Earl (Milwaukee, Wis./Hamilton) recovered at the Ohio 22-yard line. Four plays later the Huskies found the end zone as sophomore Jordan Huff (Mobile, Ala./St. Paul’s Episcopal) scored from five yards out to tie the game, 7-7, with three minutes to play in the first quarter.
A.J. Ouellette rushed for a game-high 140 yards on 30 carries for the Bobcats. Windham finished 8-of-17 passing for 76 yards and a touchdown after replacing starter J.D. Sprague who went 6-of-11 through the air for 92 yards and a score.