The first half of Saturday night’s NIU season opener against Eastern Illinois was filled with mistakes by the Huskies on both sides of the ball.

The second half wasn’t.

The NIU offense, ineffective in the first quarter, started clicking when quarterback Stacey Robinson’s arm came to life as he passed for career-high yardage en route to a 28-17 win.

The defensive squad held the Panthers scoreless in the second half after allowing 225 yards of total offense in the first thirty minutes.

“Eastern did a tremendous job with the game plan, you could tell that they had scouted us thoroughly,” NIU Head Coach Jerry Pettibone said. “That was a big win for us.”

Eastern’s first play from scrimmage set the tone for the first half and quieted the crowd of 12,380. EIU tailback Jamie Jones took a handoff, cut right and sprinted 85 yards untouched for the game’s first score.

“I’m proud of my football team, I’ll tell you that much,” EIU head coach Bob Spoo said. “I think we played right down to the wire. We’ve got nothing to be ashamed about.”

With EIU up 10-0 early in the second quarter, NIU quarterback Stacey Robinson fumbled a snap on his own 26-yard line and the ball was recovered by the Panthers’ Joe Remke. Three plays later, Huskie free safety Kevin Cassidy leaped over intended receiver Mike Rummell in the end zone and intercepted the would-be scoring pass.

“That interception was a super play,” Pettibone said. “That really gave us a boost and took the wind out of Eastern’s sails.”

The following drive was highlighted by back-to-back 18-yard passes from Robinson to Kurt Cassidy and Mark Clancy. Fullback Adam Dach drove seven yards up the middle to the Panther one-yard line and scored on the next play, cutting the EIU lead to 10-7.

“I like Adam Dach, he’s a tough football player,” Spoo said. “I like a guy who wrestles.”

Dach finished with 57 yards on 13 carries and one touchdown.

EIU freshman quarterback Jeff Thorne threw three incomplete passes on the next drive, and after a 47-yard punt by Brian Pindar, the Huskies started from their own 42-yard line.

Robinson, who completed 12 of 15 passes for a career-high 211 yards, found Cassidy open for a 25-yard gain that put the Huskies on the EIU 17-yard line. Halfback Brett Schroeder took a Robinson pitch down to the three-yard line, setting up a Robinson touchdown run that put NIU in front, 14-10.

Spoo replaced Thorne with Lee Borkowski for the next drive, a move that resulted in a 76-yard Panther touchdown drive and a 17-14 halftime lead.

On that drive, NIU senior defensive end Cary Caliendo dislocated his left elbow.

“I was making a cut, and as I was falling, I put my arm down to brace myself,” Caliendo said. “The turf caught my hand and my arm bent the wrong way. I looked down and thought ‘Man, it’s broke!’ Then the trainers came out and popped it back in.”

Caliendo is doubtful for this weekend’s game at Nebraska.

In the second half, the NIU defense turned around and began stopping the Panthers. On their first drive, EIU marched from their own 39 to a fourth-and-one on the Huskies 17-yard line. The handoff was given to tailback Broc Montgomery who attempted to dive over the line for the first down. He was met in mid-air by linebacker Steve Henriksen for no gain and the Huskie offense took over.

Henriksen recorded a game high 18 tackles in his first career start.

“The defensive line did a good job of keeping me clean,” Henriksen said. “That’s why I had so many tackles.”

After an NIU drive stalled at the EIU 31-yard line, the Panthers dug themselves into a third-and-17 hole. Thorne dropped back to pass but was hit by linebacker Paul Rogan and fumbled. Defensive end Scott Van Bellinger recovered the ball on the Panther 12-yard line.

“We didn’t play very well in the first half,” Rogan said. “Then we came out in the second half and shut them out. Once we got our adjustments made we were fine.”

On third-and-eight from the EIU 10-yard line, Robinson rolled left, and just before being knocked out-of-bounds, found Cassidy in the end zone to put the Huskies ahead for good, 21-17.

Cassidy caught five passes for 100 yards and a touchdown.

“Kurt probably played as fine a game for a receiver since we’ve been at Northern,” Pettibone said. “He was catching the ball on big downs, having to go up and make key plays.”

The Huskie defense forced the Panthers to punt on their next drive. Robinson led the offense on an 85-yard drive to the EIU 13-yard line that was highlighted by a 32-yard pass to Cassidy.

Less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, Ivanic missed a 30-yard field goal wide left.

Thorne connected with fullback John Sengstock for 17 and 13-yard passes on the next drive, and Jones had rushes of four, 16, 11 and five yards as the Panthers marched to the NIU two-yard line. On fourth-and-one from the two, Thorne fumbled the snap, recovered the ball on the seven and was tackled by Rich Favor.

obinson again led the Huskies on an impressive drive, covering 93 yards in seven minutes, for the last touchdown. He scored on an eight-yard keeper with 2:08 remaining to put NIU up 28-17.

“I thought he (Robinson) did a great job,” Spoo said. “He made a lot of big plays. That was one of the things we were trying to eliminate.”

Rbinson carried the ball 17 times for 67 yards.

“It was my duty to be a leader out there, to make the calls I thought were correct to make,” Robinson said. “They had me off-balance at first. I adjusted pretty well because the coaching staff did a good job spotting what they were doing.”

The NIU defense allowed 232 yards rushing to the Panthers, a far cry from last year’s average of 129.5 ypg. Jones gained 169 yards on 15 carries.

“A lot of kids played tonight, a lot of young guys came in and battled,” NIU defensive line coach Sheldon Herd said. “We made some mistakes, but I was really impressed with them. They’re gonna get better each and every game.”

The spread option offense, which was implemented to open up the offense, was successful in its debut.

“That was something we’ve been working on since last spring,” Pettibone said. “Our offensive coaches felt that it was important to develop our offense to that point. We needed to develop a passing attack.”

The Huskies now head for a clash against powerhouse Nebraka in Lincoln, NE on Saturday. The Cornhuskers beat Baylor 13-0 in their 1990 season opener.