NIU fans couldn’t help but feel confident with just more than five seconds remaining in the football game Thursday night at Huskie Stadium.

NIU kicker Steve Azar trotted onto the field with a 43-yard field goal opportunity to defeat No. 13-ranked Maryland.

A little more than a minute earlier, Azar had tied the game with a 25-yard field goal. In the second quarter, Azar connected on a school-record 52-yard field goal, one yard better than Nick Scott (1983). The Colorado native had everything on his side.

The wind, blowing heavily out of the south just minutes before, died to a gentle breeze before he kicked.

Moments before he attempted to break the 13-13 tie, Azar calmly tied his shoe and played air drums to the band’s tune as the Terrapins tried to ice the Huskie kicker with a time-out.

As Azar kicked the ball toward the uprights, he motioned with both hands that the field goal was good and the Huskies had won. However, Maryland safety Madieu Williams leaped into the air and used every last inch of his 36 1/2 vertical leap to deflect the kick, sending the game into overtime and the momentum to the visiting ACC opponent.

“We all had good push up front, and that’s pretty much how I blocked it,” said the 6-foot-1 Williams.

In overtime, the Huskies lost the coin toss, and Maryland opted to play defense first. NIU put whatever momentum Maryland might have to rest on a Josh Haldi 20-yard touchdown pass to Dan Sheldon, who in the second half limped off the field with a strained left knee.

When Maryland got the ball, the sellout crowd of 28,018 knew that anything short of a touchdown would end the game.

Going for a second overtime, Maryland quarterback Scott McBrien’s pass headed for Latrez Harrison in the end zone, when NIU cornerback Rob Lee deflected the ball into the air from his foot. Fellow NIU cornerback Randee Drew swooped in and grabbed the ball out of the air.

With Terrapin and Huskie players looking around dismayed about what happened, there were no flags on the play, giving NIU the 20-13 win. NIU Coach Joe Novak called it the program’s biggest victory ever.

“From where we were two years ago … to beating the 13th-ranked team in this place, I’d have to say this is the biggest win,” said Novak, in his eighth year as head man at NIU.

NIU running back and Heisman hopeful Michael Turner began the game where he left off a season ago, following his blockers for a five-yard run to the left. However, Maryland stuffed the box against “The Burner” and held him to 90 yards on 30 carries and no touchdowns.

“For the most part, we did a pretty good job of containing him,” Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said. “He does have a burst, even more so than I saw on tape. He’s a good back.”

Maryland jumped to an early 7-0 lead as they marched 58 yards on eight plays capped off by a Josh Allen one-yard touchdown run to the left. A short punt by NIU senior Anthony Gallagher, getting his first start of his career, set up the short field for the Terps.

NIU scored the next 10 points and went into halftime with a 10-7 advantage.

The Terps, who deferred the kickoff until the second half, drove 38 yards in 10 plays to tie the game on their opening drive, 10-10, on Nick Novak’s 46-yard field goal.

The game remained knotted until early in the fourth quarter when junior wide receiver Dan Sheldon slipped, allowing cornerback Domonique Foxworth to intercept Haldi’s pass at the Huskies’ 47-yard line.

A 50-yard field goal by the Terps’ Novak with 9:10 remaining gave Maryland its second lead of the game at 13-10.

Sheldon recovered though, as he broke a tackle to score the game-winning touchdown in overtime.

“I was trying to get the route right, and Josh put the ball perfectly where it needed to be,” Sheldon said. “I broke a tackle to get in the end zone. I was so pumped up when I got in the end zone. Everything happened so fast.”