DETROIT – Phil Brown held the ball above his head, as if to signal victory.

The freshman linebacker could barely get back to the sidelines as teammates mobbed him with laughs and smiles.

That deflected Luke Getsy pass sent the NIU sideline into a frenzy and all but sealed the win.

But across the field, Akron wasn’t about to simply concede.

Getsy could barely stand himself. He kept reliving how he had thrown a high ball and given away the game. But he still believed.

“I just kept saying that we’re not done,” the Akron quarterback said.

The junior was right. A third down pass to Sam Hurd came up two yards short, forcing NIU to punt and giving Akron one last chance to go 81 yards in 1:41.

Everything started so right for NIU. Adriel Hansbro nearly intercepted the first pass and Akron was called for a delay of game penalty. The Zips were in an even deeper hole than before.

And then everything went wrong for the Huskies.

A 15-yard pass to Jason Montgomery. A six yarder in the middle of the field to Johnny Long, followed by a quick six-yard run by Getsy himself.

Two more passes for 12 and nine yards, and a two-yard run by Getsy again put Akron 36 yards away from the win.

With 17 seconds left, NIU coach Joe Novak called a timeout that eventually would prove to be fatal.

While the Huskies talked coverage schemes, Akron wide receivers coach Joe Moorhead was suggesting a play that wasn’t even in the play book: a double post.

“Coach asked me if I could get by [the corner],” receiver Domenik Hixon said. “And I told him yes.”

The play worked just like they drew it up, Akron coach JD Brookhart said.

Getsy pump faked to draw the safety and then let it fly up the middle. And then 36 yards later, the ball fell into the diving grasp of Hixon.

“I looked over my shoulder to my left and [Hixon] was open,” safety Dustin Utschig said. “That’s really all I can say.”

After holding the Zips scoreless for two straight quarters, the NIU defense couldn’t come up with one final stop.

What should have been 17 seconds until celebration turned into the 17 seconds every NIU Huskie wants to forget.