There will be inter-conference football action on Saturday as the Northern Illinois Huskies out of the MAC travel to Tulsa to take on Golden Hurricanes from the AAC. NIU won their home opener, 34-27, over Eastern Illinois last Thursday while NIU fell to Wyoming 40-37 on Saturday. NIU is the defending MAC champions and coming off of a 9-5 season in 2021 that included a trip to the Cure Bowl. Tulsa also earned a bowl trip last season after finishing 7-6 in the AAC. The opening kickoff for Saturday's contest is set for 6:00pm EST.
The Huskies picked up right where they left off last regular season with a home opening 34-27 win over Eastern Illinois last Thursday night. NIU had a three-touchdown lead in the third quarter before the Panthers came back to make a game out of it. NIU QB Rocky Lombardi was 14-for-22 for 192 yards on the night and combined that with excellent running from three Huskies backs for the win. Mason Blakemore, Antario Brown and Harrison Waylee all scored a touchdown and combined for 187 yards rushing on the night. Lombardi connected with wideout Shemar Thornton for six catches for 81 yards. The Huskies ended the night with 19 first downs and 391 yards of total offense.
“Eastern Illinois had a nice little plan as far as trying to keep the ball away from us,” said NIU head coach Thomas Hammock. “They did a good job of staying in normal down and distance situations. We have to go back and look at the tape and figure out the th ings that we can do better. We certainly can play better. We have to figure out how we can stay on the field longer and try to score more points. I'm proud of their resiliency. We found a way to win and we'll get better, I'm not worried. We make a big jump from week one to week two and we have a lot of work to do.
“The defense was opportunistic in the first half. We turned them over twice. We never had a chance to get them behind the sticks in the second half. They were in second and four, second and five the whole second half and that puts a lot of pressure on the defense.”
??TOP DOGS from Thursday's WIN ??@hwaylee02 @antarioB26 @MasonBlakemore3 @Rogers__5 @QuinnUrwiler38 #TheClimb ????| #TheHardWay pic.twitter.com/cGqxCcb43c
— NIU Football (@NIU_Football) September 6, 2022
The NIU defense was not as sharp in the second half and allowed 441 yards of total offense on the day. They allowed 25 first downs on the night but did come up with two critical interceptions that kept the Panthers off the scoreboard. Daveren Rayner had a game-high 14 tackles for the defense while Jaden Dolphin added nine and CJ Brown and Kyle Pugh had eight apiece. Cornerback Eric Rogers had both picks on the day for the Huskies as they survived 276 passing yards against.