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Ohio ends Northern Illinois' 22-game November winning streak, 26-21

Ouellette runs for 140 yards as Bobcats knock Huskies out of control of MAC West


DeKALB, Ill. – Ohio did what no one else has been able to do for 22 games: beat Northern Illinois in November.

The Bobcats played spoiler by shutting down Northern Illinois’ rushing attack and establishing their own, snapping the Huskies’ streak of wins in the regular season’s last month with a 26-21 victory Tuesday night at Huskie Stadium.

The loss could keep Northern Illinois out of the Mid-American Conference Championship Game. Now a Toledo victory against Western Michigan would send the Rockets to Detroit to face Bowling Green.

"I felt really good coming in with how hard our guys would play and I thought they would really play well also," Ohio coach Frank Solich said. "If we’re healthy and we’re well and we’re playing hard, we can also be tough to beat. So I just feel really good about what these guys were able to accomplish."

Already playing without starter Derrius Vick at quarterback, the Bobcats had to have third-stringer Greg Windham finish out the final two and a half quarters when JD Sprague was injured. Ohio (8-4, 5-3 MAC) leaned heavily on A.J. Ouellette, who ran 30 times for 140 yards – nearly doubling up the Northern Illinois team total of 73 yards.

The Huskies (8-4, 6-2 MAC) also had to turn to their third-string quarterback. With Drew Hare injured, Ryan Graham started at quarterback but went out with an injury in the third quarter. Tommy Fiedler entered and led Northern Illinois on a late scoring drive, but it was too little, too late.

After Ohio recovered a muffed punt by Chad Beebe, Sprague was injured on a trick-play effort by the Bobcats, with wide receiver Brendan Cope trying to throw back to Sprague. The Bobcats settled for a 22-yard Josiah Yazdani field goal to go up 10-7.

On the next possession, though, Windham and Ohio took advantage of a short field following just a 21-yard punt. On second-and-goal, Windham connected with Keith Heitzman on a 5-yard touchdown pass to make it 17-7.

Yazdani kicked a 31-yard field goal with 1:05 left in the first half, and the Huskies were fortunate to finish the half down just 20-7. Graham was sacked and fumbled, and Quentin Poling nearly picked it up with a clear path to the end zone, but he lost control, and the Huskies recovered.

Northern Illinois cut its deficit to six on a quick score on its second possession of the second half. Graham had a 62-yard completion to Juwa Brescacin on the second play, and after a penalty, Graham threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Golladay.

Graham was injured near the end of the third quarter. With the Huskies across midfield but facing a third-and-11, Graham was sacked by Chad Moore and fumbled. Though the Bobcats did not recover, Northern Illinois lost 18 yards and their second-string quarterback.

A 32-yard pass to Cope helped set up a 26-yard Yazdani field goal that made it a two-score game, 23-14, with 11:42 remaining.

The breaks continued to go Ohio’s way on its next possession. Once again, a short punt into a stiff wind gave the Bobcats great field position, but they were stopped on three plays, and Yazdani’s 48-yard field goal try was blocked. However, Kent Berger recovered it behind the line of scrimmage and advanced it 20 yards for a first down, eventually leading to a 26-yard Yazdani field goal with 7:42 to go.

The Bobcats stopped the Huskies on downs on the next possession and forced them to use all of their timeouts before giving the ball back. Fiedler led a 90-play drive, throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass to Golladay on a fourth-and-6 play with 1:45 remaining.

Josh Orne attempted to fool Ohio by faking an onside kick to the right, then picked up the all and punting it into the ground into the left, but Kawmae Sawyer recovered without incident, and the Bobcats were able to take three knees to run out the clock.

Ohio took an early lead with Sprague hooking up Jordan Reid on a 28-yard scoring pass on a fourth-and-3 play at the 6:36 mark in the first quarter.

Northern Illinois tied it with three minutes to go in the first quarter after it recovered a Sebastian Smith fumble at the Ohio 22-yard line. Jordan Huff ran it in from 5 yards out to make it 7-7.

Sprague was 6 of 11 passing for 92 yards and a score and ran five times for 30 yards before his injury, while Windham finished 8 of 17 for 76 yards, a touchdown and an interception that came on a Hail Mary attempt at the end of the first half. Windham ran 11 times for 43 yards.

While Ohio has spread out carries among its running backs all season, Ouellette was the only one to touch the ball Tuesday night.

Reid was the top target of the Bobcats running backs, finishing with 66 yards on five receptions. Cope, back after missing several games with an injury, had 49 yards on two catches.

Graham was 11 of 17 for 142 yards and a touchdown but netted minus 18 yards on 14 rushing attempts. He was under pressure all game and was sacked four times. Fiedler went 9 of 17 for 113 yards and a touchdown and ran three times for 20 yards.

Northern Illinois running back Joel Bouagnon was held to only 37 yards on 16 attempts.

Brescacin had 114 yards in six catches, and Golladay finished with six receptions for 72 yards.

Moore had a huge game on defense for Ohio with nine tackles, a sack and a forced fumble, and Kurt Laseak had eight tackles. Poling, Casey Sayles and Tarell Basham had sacks.

"We had a big game ahead of us, and I think our team responded well during practice," Moore said. "We came out with a lot of energy — and especially when it’s cold out — it’s hard to do that. We came out with a bunch of energy and our defense got back to our old ways and that’s just attack and react."

While the Huskies await their MAC Championship Game fate as a result of the loss, the Bobcats likely improved their appeal for a better bowl game and will await word on where they are headed.








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