Southern Illinois Wins It on a Final-second Field Goal
Three ties, one lead change, and a 31-yard field goal from Weston Schofield with the clock at 0:00. Southern Illinois beat Northern Iowa 20-17.
Northern Iowa struck first, Jaxon Dailey hitting Cyrus Courtney from three yards out late in the first quarter. DJ Williams answered with an 18-yard run to tie it at 7-7, and Schofield's 21-yarder at the end of the second quarter put Southern Illinois up 10-7. Blake Pankratz tied it at 10-10 in the third, Williams ran in from seven yards to make it 17-10, and that was how it stood entering the fourth. Dailey and Courtney connected again from six yards with 2:10 left to make it 17-17, and Schofield won it.
The yardage was not close to the score. Northern Iowa had 355 total yards to 303, and threw for 240 to Southern Illinois's 112. The Salukis ran 33 times for 191 yards and had three sacks to Northern Iowa's one. Each team threw one interception. It was a tie game at the gun, and then it was not.
Xavier Terrell ran 15 times for 101 yards for Northern Iowa and caught four passes for 15 more, which is the kind of game that wins a lot of other afternoons. Dailey carried 14 times for minus four yards, so the quarterback's legs did not help. Quade Chatmon had seven carries for 36 yards and three catches for 27 for the Salukis. Small contributions, correctly timed.
Southern Illinois goes to 4-4 and Northern Iowa drops to 3-3. Fantasy owners should note that Williams, a quarterback who threw for 112 yards, still led the whole game in points because he ran for two scores. That is the position working as designed.