Football (9-0, 5-0 MAC) scored at will Saturday as it flattened the Massachusetts Minutemen (1-8, 1-4 MAC), 63-19, at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.

The Huskies’ ninth victory of the season extended their road winning streak to 14 games, their regular-season winning streak to 20 games and their conference winning streak to 22 games. NIU posted a season-high 63 points and had a season-low one penalty for 15 yards.

NIU trailed early as the Minutemen took a 3-0 lead on a 42-yard field goal on the game’s opening drive. On the following drive, redshirt senior quarterback Jordan Lynch capped off an eight-play, 53-yard drive with a 6-yard touchdown run, and the Huskies never looked back.

“It was a good win,” said head coach Rod Carey in a news release. “We started right and kept our foot on the game for the first half. Any time you have that productivity, you’ve got to be happy.”

Lynch rushed for touchdowns of 25 yards and 19 yards in the first quarter, and the Huskies led the Minutemen 21-6 at the end of the first quarter. Lynch became the first quarterback to rush for three touchdowns in the first quarter since Boise State’s Jared Zabransky in 2004.

After senior defensive tackle Ken Bishop recorded his first career interception in the second quarter, redshirt junior running back Cameron Stingily rushed into the end zone untouched from 6 yards out. UMass answered with its lone touchdown of the game on a 1-yard touchdown run, cutting the NIU lead to 28-13.

On the first play of the ensuing drive, Lynch connected with a wide-open Juwan Brescacin for a 66-yard touchdown. The 66-yard touchdown pass was the longest completion of the year for Lynch and extended his streak of consecutive games with a touchdown pass to 22; it was also the longest catch and run of Brescacin’s

career.

Before the half, junior wide receiver Tommylee Lewis extended the Huskies’ lead to 42-13 with a 15-yard touchdown run.

To open the second half, Lynch rushed into the end zone from 11 yards out. It was his fourth rushing touchdown of the game, a single-game high for Lynch.

Lynch played only one series in the second half but accounted for five total touchdowns. He finished 10-of-13 for 160 yards and one touchdown. He carried the ball 17 times for 119 yards and four touchdowns.

“I’m a quarterback first,” Lynch said in a news conference. “I don’t look to run first. I don’t try to force any balls. I try not to turn the ball over. I feel like if I’m going to force something, I’d rather just use my legs and find the hole.”

The Huskies allowed only two third-quarter field goals, and backup quarterback Drew Hare added even more style points. Hare found freshman wide receiver Chad Beebe for an 81-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter; it was Beebe’s first career touchdown catch. Hare ran for a 47-yard touchdown on the ensuing NIU drive.

The Huskies fumbled twice in the second half, but won the turnover battle, 3-2. They intercepted two passes and recovered one fumble, and they converted all three turnovers into points.

In the victory, the Huskies lost junior left tackle Tyler Loos with a broken left leg and a dislocated ankle on their first drive of the second half. Loos missed the 2011 campaign with a torn ACL and missed the final three games last season after he broke his right leg against Toledo in mid-November.