For the first time in five games this season, NIU had a chance to savor a win near the end of a game.

A 17-3 victory over Southwest Missouri State at Huskie Stadium Saturday added a nice touch to Parents’ Day in that the Huskies were able to get a lot of players into the game.

While the Huskies were taken to the limit in their first three wins and had to battle to the finish in last week’s loss, they finally gave their coaches a chance to breathe easier.

An early fourth-quarter touchdown and a field goal with 9:34 left sealed up the win and allowed the Huskies to implement two different backfields, several combinations in the offensive line and 21 different players on defense.

Though some might have felt NIU could have opened up the game a bit sooner, the consensus after the game was that a 14-point win was a step in the right direction.

“I’m really proud of our players to get to the point in the season where they actually took control of the game,” Huskie coach Jerry Pettibone said. “I heard some of the players who were sitting out the rest of the game on the sidelines say that this is the way that it needs to be.

“When we have the chance to make substitutions, it’s the maturity of our team coming through. I hope we have a lot more of them (easier wins) this season.”

NIU defensive tackle Ted Hennings agreed.

“It feels great to be able to play everybody,” Hennings said. “Some of the walk-ons have been around here for five years and haven’t gotten much of a chance to play. It really wasn’t an easy win, but our offense was on the field more than it has been.”

Still, Southwest Missouri State ran more plays than NIU (71 to 66) and held the ball longer (33:20 to 26:40). That, as well as the fact the game wasn’t put away until the fourth quarter, left Huskie linebacker Mike Higgins still hungry for a big win.

“It was nice to win a bit easier, but personally I felt this team (SMSU) should have been dominated,” Higgins said. “We came out a little flat. It shouldn’t have been as close as it was.”

While the NIU defense gave up 266 yards of total offense, the Huskie offense lapped the Bears, gaining 368. And staying with its game plan, the NIU defense again bent but didn’t break.

“We (the defense) were doing our assignments,” cornerback Randall Townsel said of the Bears 266-yard day. “But we were missing some easy tackles.”

But they made the tackles when they had to. With SMSU in a first-and-goal situation from the NIU 6-yard line, Hennings, Cary Caliendo and Mike Manson registered consecutive tackles on the three straight running plays, and Brett Tucker made the hit on the pivotal fourth-and-one play.

A game-clinching, 99-yard touchdown drive followed.

“We just pounded them physically in that 99-yard drive,” left tackle Dan Smaha said.

“The defense really got us fired up for that series,” center Eric Wenckowski said.

An earlier SMSU penetration into Huskie territory got the crowd fired up. As Bear kicker Chris Potthast lined up a 37-yard field goal try (which went wide-left), members of the student body deposited oranges on the north end of the field and began chanting “Citrus Bowl!”

No, no bowl reps were on hand, but it’s the thought that counts.