Northern Iowa Pulls Away Late to Beat Indiana State 45-23
The best fantasy night of the game belonged to a quarterback on the losing team. Elijah Owens put up 42.7 Promethium points for Indiana State, and the Sycamores still lost 45-23 to Northern Iowa.
It was a game for most of three quarters. Indiana State took a 3-0 lead on a 22-yard Sebastian Lopez field goal, Northern Iowa tied it at 3-3 with a Blake Pankratz kick with 23 seconds left in the first, and the Panthers went ahead for good when Christian Collins ran in from 15 yards with 8:43 left in the second. Owens answered with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Keshon Singleton (the extra point failed, so 10-9). Jaxon Dailey hit Taj Hughes from 12 yards with 1:09 left in the half for 17-9, and Xavier Terrell's 9-yard run made it 24-9 in the third.
Owens threw a 14-yard touchdown to Max McCool with 1:34 left in the third to make it 24-16, and that is where the fourth quarter started. Collins ran 30 yards to make it 31-16. Owens ran in from 2 yards to cut it to 31-23 with 8:49 left. Then it came apart. Terrell scored from 38 yards out with 4:06 left and Calvin Jaworski returned an interception 60 yards with 2:34 left. Take away the pick-six and it is a 38-23 game, a 15-point margin, not 22.
Indiana State out-gained Northern Iowa, 473 yards to 439, and threw for 313 against 198. The difference was the ground game (241 yards for the Panthers against 160) and the turnovers: Owens lost two fumbles and threw that one interception.
Northern Iowa moves to 4-3. Indiana State is 2-6.