Football’s ground game made mincemeat of Presbyterian’s defense, gashing the Blue Hose left and right Thursday at Huskie Stadium.

The Huskies racked up 635 total yards of offense, including 424 rushing yards on 77 carries. The 635 yards is the most by NIU since it accumulated 612 yards Nov. 2 against Massachusetts, and the 109 plays ran is a school record.

“I was pretty pleased with” the running game, said head coach Rod Carey. “I think we ran the ball pretty good. I’m not a numbers guy, but … we rushed for 424 [yards]. So, anytime you do that, I think that’s a good thing.

“I’ll see more on the film if we’re covering guys up, moving our feet, doing the things we need to do, but I have a feeling we were.”

Redshirt senior tailback Akeem Daniels, who missed all last season with a foot injury, paced the Huskies with 118 rushing yards on 15 carries.

Sophomore tailback Joel Bouagnon, making his first career start with redshirt senior tailback Cameron Stingily sidelined with an undisclosed injury, took 16 handoffs for 97 yards and four touchdowns.

“It felt really good,” Bouagnon said of scoring his first four career touchdowns. “… [I was just taking] it one play at a time, one step at a time, not trying to get my head too big or anything, [and] just focusing on the game.”

Sophomore tailback Draco Smith got in on the action in the second half, carrying the ball seven times for 35 yards and recording his first career rushing touchdown. Smith’s score put the Huskies up 55-0 with 3:55 remaining in the third quarter.

As for quarterbacks Matt McIntosh, Drew Hare and Anthony Maddie, all three got involved in the ground game when they orchestrated the offense.

McIntosh ran the ball four times for 27 yards. Hare carried the rock five times for 51 yards, including a 25-yard run. Maddie chewed up 51 yards, including a long run of 27 yards, on nine carries.

“Last year we had a kid who we could run quarterback power with about 30, 35 times a game, and he was pretty good at it, so we were going to do that,” Carey said. “This year, these guys can run quarterback power, too, but I don’t think we need to run 30, 35 times a game with them. We’ll see; games dictate a lot of things.

“I know this: You gotta run the football. You gotta run the football. And I don’t care what it looks like. Run the ball.”