With a possible bowl bid on the line, the NIU football team accomplished something it hadn’t done in 114 games.

On ‘Senior Night’ Tuesday, the Naval Academy came to DeKalb and shut out the Huskies 16-0.

“Navy did a great job tonight of executing,” said NIU head coach Jerry Kill. “The game comes down to little mistakes here and there and you can’t make them against the Naval Academy.

They are a very disciplined football program and team.”

It turned out those little mistakes would cost NIU momentum early and force it to play from behind for much of the game.

The Huskies came out running the ball strong on their first possession of the game, behind 42 yards from NIU running back Ricky Crider. But on a second and ten from the Navy 30-yard line, Huskie quarterback Chandler Harnish was intercepted on a deep pass by Navy’s Rashawn King.

Harnish would finish the game 14-24 passing for 116 yards, while also being NIU’s leading rusher with 64 yards on 14 carries.

“The game is played with momentum,” Kill said. “We made a mental error [on the interception] and those hurt you in games [like this].”

NIU later appeared to regain some of that momentum. With Navy facing a first and goal from the NIU three-yard line, the defense stepped up and was able to hold the Midshipmen to only a field goal.

The Huskies, however, again stalled on offense, with Navy capitalizing on a one-yard touchdown run by quarterback Ricky Dobbs to extend its lead to 9-0.

“They were able to rally to the ball real quickly,” Harnish said of NIU’s inability to sustain a long drive. “I think that’s the story of the game. They played real hard and they were able to stop us and not let us finish when we got near the red zone.”

After a short possession by Navy to open the second half, the Huskies again appeared to be regaining much-needed momentum. But Harnish was again picked off, this time by Emmet Merchant, who retuned the interception for 29 yards to the NIU 36-yard line.

This second interception set up Navy’s final scoring drive of the game, as Navy’s Eric Kettani ran the ball in from a yard out to complete the final margin of victory at 16-0.

“[NIU] had our defense reeling on that first drive,” said Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo. “Those picks helped us settle down a little bit and get our defense on the sideline.”

Although the offense struggled at times, the NIU defense did its best part to keep the game within reach for as long as possible. NIU’s David Bryant and senior linebacker Tim McCarthy led the team with 12 tackles each.

Senior defensive end Larry English, playing in his final home game of his career, had three tackles, including one for a loss. While the Huskies gave up 262 rushing yards, they were able to hold Navy from many long plays and kept themselves within striking distance.

“Our defense played outstanding tonight,” Kill said. “With four or five days to prepare for that [triple option offense], they did a heck of a job.”