The NIU defense’s nine-quarter string of holding their opponents scoreless came to end in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s 49-7 win over Division I-AA Murray State.

At least on the books it did.

SU’s only scoring came when quarterback Ronald Donaldson connected with Rick Miller for a 21-yard touchdown after an NIU fumble on their own 32-yard line.

“That’s always a goal for a defense, to get a shutout. It just didn’t happen and you can’t really blame anybody for it,” NIU defensive end Cary Caliendo said. “But that shutout is there. The seven points don’t mean anything, because we played great.”

NIU quarterback Stacey Robinson, who rushed his way over the 1,000-yard mark for the season, wasn’t impressed with his performance.

“We knew that they (MSU) were having problems,” Robinson said, “so it was hard for us to focus in and do all the right things. I know I messed up a lot of plays today. Interceptions and fumbles_ I really didn’t play that well.”

Robinson finished the afternoon with 166 yards rushing and two touchdowns. He also completed four of eight passes for 61 yards and a touchdown, a 46-yard bootleg toss to Claude Royster in the first quarter that put NIU up 14-0.

“That was a great call,” Robinson said. “I knew it was going to work all the way. I thought I would have to run it, but Claude was wide open.”

acers head coach Mike Mahoney singled out the Royster touchdown after the game.

“I think the turning point of the ballgame was the fourth-and-one call,” he said. “They boot and Stacey comes out on the corner and hits the big tight end (Royster).”

The catch was Royster’s second of the year, both for touchdowns.

With such a comfortable lead, NIU head coach Jerry Pettibone was again able to give some of his backups playing time.

“We were able to play a lot of players in the game, which is important,” he said. “We’ve been able to do that the last three weeks and that’s going to help us a great deal for the last three games of the season.”

Three seemed to be the lucky number of the Huskies defense. Paul Rogan, Earl Upton and Bryan Hanson each picked off a Donaldson pass, Tom Rhomberg, Raymond Roberts and Drew Riley all recovered a fumble and Steve Wild, Caliendo and Rob Wagner each recorded a sack.

As the final score would indicate, the Huskies dominated the statistical charts. NIU had 487 yards of total offense compared to MSU’s 166, including 426 yards on the ground to the Racers’ 35.

The Parents’ Day crowd of 15,987 appeared to be much larger from the field, according to Pettibone.

“I remember there were 18,000 here for homecoming and it looked like a larger crowd today,” he said. “The crowd was into the game and that’s what I wanted for our seniors.”