Nov. 4, 2006

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CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - The University of Northern Iowa football team rallied for 21 fourth-quarter points and used a late defensive stand to hold off Western Kentucky Saturday in the UNI-Dome, scoring a 31-20 victory over the Hilltoppers.

 

Just as in last season's exciting 23-20 win in double overtime against the Hilltoppers, the Panthers required late game heroics to stave off Western Kentucky. With the visitors leading 17-10, UNI put together an impressive scoring march to knot the score at 17. Tailback Darian Williams capped the 13-play, 73-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown plunge with 11:52 remaining in the final period.

 

The Hilltoppers answered with a drive deep into UNI territory midway through the fourth quarter. With the WKU offense poised to score, defensive tackle Mark Huygens sacked Western Kentucky quarterback Justin Haddix to force the Hilltoppers to settle for a field goal. The 36-yard kick by Chris James gave WKU the lead back at 20-17 with 7:52 to play.

 

The Panthers responded by going 80 yards in just 2:43 to seize the first lead since a 10-3 advantage late in the first half. Terrell Allen put the Panthers on top 24-20 by hauling in an Eric Sanders pass and taking it 56 yards for a touchdown with 5:03 left in the game.

 

That's when the Panther defense stood tall. A pair of penalties on the Hilltoppers set-up a third-and-20 from their own 10, and then UNI's Matt Tharp dropped Haddix 7 yards on a sack to pin WKU near its own goal line.

 

The defensive stand helped the Panthers' offense to seal the win on a pair of big runs by Corey Lewis. The second went for 30 yards to the end zone to push the Panthers' lead to the final margin of victory.

 

"I am very proud of our football team," UNI head coach Mark Farley said. "Good things happen when you play good football. We won the line of scrimmage on both offense and defense today."

 

Three Panthers notched rushing touchdowns as the UNI ground attack chewed up 251 yards on the day. Corey Lewis led the way with 123 yards. Sanders completed 16 of 23 passes for 197 yards. Senior placekicker Brian Wingert went 4-for-4 on extra point attempts and booted a 22-yard field goal as he tied Brian Mitchell for the Panthers' all-time lead in three-pointers, with 59. 

 

UNI's defense sacked Haddix five times, including two by Huygens, and had eight tackles-for-loss. Senior cornerback Dre Dokes also tallied his sixth interception of the season, and the Panthers held WKU to just 75 rushing yards.

 

"To hold that team to 75 yards was a tremendous effort by our defense," Farley said.

 

The Hilltoppers opened the scoring with a 34-yard field goal by James with 4:37 left in the first quarter. The Panthers answered quickly with a 10-yard touchdown run by Johnny Gray. Wingert's field goal pushed the UNI advantage to 10-3 with 2:06 remaining in the first half, but the Hilltoppers answered with a 35-yard scoring strike from Haddix to Curtis Hamilton just before the half to tie things at 10.

 

Western Kentucky jumped ahead for the first time on another pass by Haddix, this time a 13-yard connection with Jared Holland with 1:54 remaining in the third quarter.

 

The Panthers travel to Carbondale, Ill., next Saturday to take on Southern Illinois in a 3 p.m. Gateway Conference game. The contest will be broadcast on tape delay by CSTV at 10:30 p.m. UNI then returns to the UNI-Dome on Nov. 18 for a matchup with Illinois State in its regular-season finale.