BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – A dominant defensive performance and a young quarterback’s first college touchdown helped NIU football come away with a 17-7 upset win over Bowling Green State University on Saturday at Doyt L. Perry Stadium in Bowling Green.
NIU (4-2, 1-1 MAC) took home its first victory of Mid-American Conference play despite a late start due to a lightning delay and a plethora of injuries to key starters like senior running back Antario Brown and redshirt junior quarterback Ethan Hampton.
“I thought our guys played extremely hard,” head coach Thomas Hammock said. “But we can still get a lot better, and I’m excited about our growth as a football team as we continue to move forward.”
After Hampton left the game with an undisclosed injury midway through the second quarter, redshirt freshman quarterback Josh Holst passed for 89 yards and ran for 47 yards and a touchdown in the longest action of his young career. Holst finished 10-of-14 passing in two-and-a-half quarters of action.
Hammock said Holst’s experience playing a drive in last week’s win at home over the University of Massachusetts was vital to his confidence on Saturday.
“We got him in last week and got the butterflies out,” Hammock said. “I think he’s going to make a tremendous jump as we continue to move forward.”
The Huskies recorded a season-high six sacks – getting to Bowling Green senior quarterback Connor Bazelak five times and redshirt freshman backup quarterback Lucian Anderson III once. Redshirt junior defensive tackle Skyler Gill-Howard finished with six tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks – all career bests.
Gill-Howard said the defensive line’s performance was a testament to its ability to dominate a game.
“We talked before the game like ‘we haven’t disrupted the game yet as a whole D-line,’” Gill-Howard said. “And today, I think we accomplished that. We’ve got to keep stacking.”
After the game’s opening kickoff was delayed 27 minutes by a lightning strike in the area, NIU kicked a 46-yard field goal on its opening possession to take an early 3-0 lead. The Falcons responded with a five-play, 75-yard scoring drive capped off by an 11-yard touchdown pass from Bazelak to junior tight end Harold Fannin Jr.
From there, the Huskies clamped down on defense. NIU allowed 135 yards the rest of the game and limited the Falcons to 1-of-12 on third down. NIU also held Fannin – one of the top tight ends in college football – to a season-worst 25 receiving yards, keeping him two yards shy of claiming Bowling Green’s record for career receiving yards by a tight end.
Junior defensive end Roy Williams produced the game’s first takeaway in the second quarter with a strip-sack fumble recovered by redshirt junior defensive end Jalonnie Williams. The offense ultimately couldn’t capitalize as Woodill’s 24-yard field goal attempt was blocked by BGSU senior defensive lineman Ali Saad.
Holst entered the game midway into the failed field goal drive. One drive later, he led a 13-play, 54-yard scoring drive capped by a 21-yard Woodill field goal to make it 7-6 at halftime.
The Falcons opened the second half with a 13-play, 59-yard drive set up by a fake punt. Facing fourth-and-14, Bowling Green junior punter John Henderson ran 23 yards to move the chains. The drive was ultimately fruitless after junior kicker Zach Long missed a 32-yard field goal attempt.
Neither team scored for the entire third quarter as they exchanged punts during the frame. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Holst scored his first career touchdown on a 22-yard run to give NIU its first lead since the game’s first possession.
Holst said a block by redshirt freshman wide receiver Kyle Thomas was instrumental to setting up his scoring score.
“I was guessing maybe I should have went inside or outside on him (the defender),” Holst said of his path on the run. “Luckily, KT had a great block on the outside, and I got to stiff arm his arm down and tip-toe the sideline there. That was really cool.”
NIU’s ensuing 2-point conversion attempt put the Huskies up 7 thanks to an unusual connection through the air. Senior tight end Grayson Barnes took the snap and rolled out right before completing a pass to redshirt junior long snapper Isaac Hatfield in the back of the end zone to convert.
Woodill made his third field goal of the day – a 27-yarder – on NIU’s next series after what would’ve been Holst’s first passing TD was wiped by an illegal formation penalty.
NIU took 29 seconds off the clock on the next drive, but forced Bowling Green to burn all three of its timeouts. Down 10, the Falcons advanced 20 yards on their last-gasp drive before senior safety Nate Valcarcel intercepted Anderson to ice the game.
As the Huskies entered victory formation and the game’s final seconds ticked off the clock, Hammock took a moment to show off his best dance moves.
Like its coach, NIU will dance into the rest of the weekend before welcoming the University of Toledo to Huskie Stadium for the 117th Homecoming Game.
