Behind timely defense and continued excellent output from the quarterback position, NIU football picked up its fifth win of the season in Muncie, Indiana.

The Huskies (5-1, 2-0 MAC) defeated the Ball State Cardinals, (3-3, 1-2 MAC) 35-23 as NIU’s defense posted one fumble recovery and two interceptions. Those turnovers allowed the Huskies to raise their current winning streak to five games and raise their MAC winning streak to ten.

“Our word for the week was perseverance and I don’t think I could have picked a better word for the team,” said NIU coach Dave Doeren in a press conference. “I thought the defense had a ton of huge stops today. We hit [quarterback Keith] Wenning a lot and forced some bad throws.”

The other deciding factor of the game was the play of junior quarterback Jordan Lynch. Lynch rushed the ball 29 times, gaining 207 yards and scored three of NIU’s four touchdowns on his feet. The other touchdown came on a throw from Lynch to junior running back Akeem Daniels.

“He is a great player, I think everyone knows that now,” Doeren said in a press conference. “He’s running the offense really well and making big plays.”

NIU jumped out to an early lead with Lynch scoring on a 29-yard run with four minutes remaining in the first quarter. Ball State would come back with a 20-yard field goal near the end of the quarter.

After a Leighton Settle touchdown early in the second quarter, the Cardinals would score two field goals and two touchdowns to take the lead, 23-14.

Lynch would rush for two touchdowns, one being a 71-yard run, and find Daniels on a 54-yard touchdown pass to score the final 21 points of the game.

“We had plenty of chances today,” said Ball State coach Pete Lembo in a press conference. “We had some opportunities to get some points and didn’t get it done. We had some penalties that really put us of schedule on drives and a couple turnovers. The good news is we lined up and went toe-to-toe again with what is one of the premier programs in the conference”

This is the third game that NIU trailed in the fourth quarter and was able to come from behind to win.

“We’re a good fourth-quarter team,” Doeren said in a press conference. “I think we do a good job of wearing guys down and I’m really proud of the resiliency of our football team. Road wins say a lot about our coaching staff and our players. When they are down, there is no flinch.”