DeKALB | When the starting quarterback was announced Saturday night at Huskie Stadium, the NIU fans gave their seal of approval and Chandler Harnish did his best to warrant the ovation.

In his first game of the 2010 season, Harnish was the offensive spark plug that was missing in Iowa State. The redshirt junior was 14-of-25 passing for 146 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Rushing the ball, he carried it 21 times for 185 yards and a touchdown.

“He had a chip on his shoulder today,” said center Scott Wedige. “He played extremely well. He made some plays today and that was definitely awesome, a great relief for us.”

Harnish missed three games last season and spring drills with a knee injury. It was originally thought that he would need surgery that would threaten his 2010 season, but the knee healed faster than expected.

Fellow redshirt junior DeMarcus Grady started last week but NIU head coach Jerry Kill decided to make a change on the Friday before facing North Dakota.

“I make those decisions based on watching a lot of film and evaluating our football team and seeing who can put us in the best position,” Kill said. “We were 8-of-16 on third downs. We needed to make some plays and I felt that, at this point in time, that this was a decision that I was going to make.”

Harnish completed his first pass of the season to Perez Ashford on the third play from scrimmage and ended the 13-play, 80-yard drive with a four yard touchdown pass to Martel Moore. The touchdown was the first of Moore’s career and the 20th of Harnish’s career.

The redshirt junior continued to make plays for the offense on the next drive, rushing for a gain of 38 yards, setting a career high for the longest rush of his career.

“I was just playing within our scheme as an offense,” Harnish said. “The coaches put me in those situations and North Dakota played pretty good coverage there.”

North Dakota’s zone read shut down the passing game as well as running back Chad Spann in the second half. That’s when the captain, Harnish, took over the game with his legs.

After 62 rushing yards in the first half, he gained 123 yards on the ground in the second half. Harnish topped his previous career high for longest run with a 40-yard touchdown scamper in the fourth quarter to go up 23-14.

“He took some shots too,” said North Dakota head coach Chris Mussman. “Our guys stuck him a couple times, so he’s a tough kid. We had some problems with our zone read with our inside linebackers getting to where they needed to be with the quarterback.”