It was just a matter of time before NIU’s turnover problem caught up to them.

That time happened to come on Saturday night at Raymond James Stadium.

South Florida (2-0) rolled up its 15th straight home win as they beat the visiting Huskies 37-6.

NIU (1-1) fumbled the ball six times, losing two of them and had two passes intercepted as it ran its turnover ratio to negative eight on the season.

South Florida’s Clenton Crossley was the first to score for the Bulls, running in a six yard score with 13:51 left in the second quarter.

Both defenses dominated the rest of the half as both teams were kept off the scoreboard.

“We were in the game for a half, but we weren’t doing anything offensively,” coach Joe Novak said. “The defense was just on the field too much. Then we gave up a couple of big plays. But in the third quarter, we were still in the game. We just couldn’t move the ball on offense.”

South Florida added two more points with 8:43 left in the third quarter when quarterback Josh Haldi was called for intentional grounding in the end zone.

South Florida began to pull away later in the third when Bulls quarterback Marquel Blackwell hooked up with DeAndrew Rubin for a 95-yard touchdown pass increasing the Bulls lead to 16-0

Rubin then took a Jimmy Erwin punt 55 yards for a touchdown to put the Bulls up 23-0 with 7:27 remaining in the game.

South Florida added two late touchdowns before backup quarterback Ryan Gilbert hooked up with freshman wide receiver Sam Hurd from 25 yards out for the Huskies only score of the game.

“Our defense was hanging in there in the first half, but we just had awful field position,” Novak said. “They had good position throughout the first half, and we couldn’t stop them and get the ball back right away. We never had good field position, and eventually it took its toll.”

The Huskies played the entire game without senior running back Thomas Hammock.

Hammock sat out the South Florida game after undergoing a series of medical tests. The nature of the testing was not released. He will be re-valuated later this week.

Filling in for Hammock was backup Michael Turner who ran for 66 yards on 29 attempts and had no touchdowns.

As a team, the Huskies were out rushed 116-73, marking the second straight game the Huskies have been out gained on the ground.

As for Blackwell, the standout quarterback racked up 273 passing yards, had 75 yards rushing and added a pooch punt for 38 yards that was downed inside the 20-yard line.

The 31-point margin marked the largest defeat for the Huskies since a 41-9 setback to Marshall in 1999.