“Going on the road and getting a win is hard,” said NIU Head Coach Rod Carey. “It was a strain. The guys did a good job fighting and battling. It was a good win, an overtime win and we’re 2-0 in conference so we’re gonna enjoy it for 24 hours and go get ready for another road game next week.”
NIU (2-3, 2-0 MAC) defeated EMU (2-3, 0-2) for the 11th consecutive year, including the last three in overtime. After winning in just one overtime period in 2016 and 2017, the teams battled for three extra periods in 2018.
EMU’s Chad Ryland made a 28-yard field goal with three seconds on the clock in regulation to send the game into OT. The score was the Eagles’ first in more than 51 minutes of game time, since the 6:26 mark of the first period, and came at the end of a 13-play, 60-yard drive.
NIU won the overtime toss and elected to play defense. Eastern Michigan found the end zone in just two plays with Shaq Vann scoring on a 14-yard run. The Huskie offense responded, taking five plays until quarterback Marcus Childers floated a pass into the arms of senior tight end Ty Harmston, who recorded his first career touchdown. Andrew Gantz added the PAT to send the teams back onto the field for overtime number two.
Neither team was able to score in the second OT. Harbison’s fumble was recovered by EMU at the five-yard line to end the Huskies’ scoring chance, but Ryland’s 38-yard field goal was missed wide right, leaving the score tied 20-20.
The Huskie defense, which was stellar throughout the game, forced EMU into another field goal attempt. Ryland pushed this one through from 42 yards to put Eastern ahead 23-20.
Back on offense, Carey and the Huskies went right back to Harbison, who finished the game with 136 yards on 32 carries. He had rushes of one, 10 and three yards on the series, with the last of those taking the ball to the EMU one-yard line. Two plays later, he crossed the goal line to give NIU the win.
“That was great to see,” said Carey of Harbison’s score. “We knew we were going right back to him [after the fumble]. We have faith in Tre, we needed to get him right back out there.”
“I needed to let [the fumble] go,” Harbison said. “I had a ‘next play’ mindset, that’s what our coaches always teach and I couldn’t let that affect me. It felt great to know my teammates and my coaches had my back.”
NIU led 13-10 at halftime after Childers engineered a “two-minute” drive in the final 3:03 of the half to perfection, twice converting third downs with runs of three and 16 yards, and hitting Wesley on passes of 22 and 17 yards to the eight yard line. From there, Gantz made his second field goal of the game from 26 yards out.
The score remained there for nearly the entire second half until Ryland’s game-tying field goal. The Huskies had the field position advantage for most of that time and by the end of the game, had run 97 plays to the Eagles’ 74. NIU outgained the Eagles 356-242 in total yards, and limited EMU to just a 3-of-18 mark on third down conversions.
Junior linebacker Antonio Jones-Davis led the way for the Huskie defense with 13 tackles, two sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss and two pass break-ups. He also recovered a fumble.
“This win feels great,” Jones-Davis said. “Toward the end I was nervous, but we just dug deep and played with heart and got it done. We’ve just got to continue to strain to execute on defense.”
“Antonio played great,” Carey said. “I love that he’s not satisfied. He came up and was disappointed in some things he could have done at the end, but he made a ton of plays tonight.”
Eastern Michigan jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of the game, helped by an interception off a deflected pass, before NIU got on the board on a Gantz 43-yard field goal with 36 seconds to play in the first quarter.
NIU scored its first touchdown on a two-yard run by Marcus Jones with 4:17 to play in the first half to complete a 14-play, 56-yard drive that took 5:44 off the clock.
Childers completed 20-of-35 passes for 121 yards and added 77 rushing yards on 17 carries, including some critical third-down runs to keep drives alive.
(Courtesy of NIU Athletics)