The Peacock football team suffered another close home loss on Saturday afternoon in Fayette during Upper Iowa's Homecoming Weekend. Northern State took advantage of four UIU turnovers and kept the ball in their possession with 284 rushing yards to escape Harms-Eischeid Stadium with a 24-22 victory in the teams' first Northern Sun cross-divisional game. UIU is now 0-5 on the year with all three home losses coming by an average of 4.7 points. NSU improves to 3-2 on the season with their second straight win.
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Upper Iowa got on the scoreboard first scoring a touchdown on a 4-play, 59-yard drive on their opening possession. The drive was highlighted by a 44-yard run for freshman running back
LeVon Bellemy and was capped off by a 14-yard pass and catch from freshman
Myles Herrera to senior wideout
Brandyn Tulloch.
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Northern State scratched three points back on their ensuing possession with a 36-yard field goal and then took a 10-7 lead in the second quarter when Isaiah Cherrier put an exclamation point on an 11-play, 80-yard drive with a one-yard dive into the end zone.
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UIU didn't trail for long taking their next opportunity 75 yards in 10 plays for a touchdown and two-point conversion to move ahead 15-10. Bellemy scored his first collegiate touchdown after bouncing outside and racing the Wolves defenders to the pylon. The freshman back rushed six times on the drive and picked up 20 yards including the 6-yard scoring run.
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Northern State scored a timely touchdown with only 26 seconds to play in the opening half when Hunter Trautman hit his receiver for a 19-yard touchdown. The Wolves covered 66 yards in just over three minutes to get the score right before half and take a 17-15 advantage into the locker room.
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In the second half, NSU scored a touchdown on their first possession to push their lead to two scores, 24-15. The scoring drive was the Wolves third straight possession that ended in a touchdown. The UIU defense got things figured out for the remainder of the game and forced a turnover on downs and four punts in the visitor's final five chances with the ball.
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While the UIU defense was getting tougher and getting stops, the NSU defense was forcing turnovers. Northern State posted four takeaways in the second half including three interceptions and a controversial fumble at midfield when UIU trailed by just two. Upper Iowa's lone touchdown drive in the second half came midway through the final quarter.
Bralin Simon came up with two catches for a total of 17 yards. The drive ended with a one-yard dive over the goal line by Bellemy.
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Trailing 24-22 with six and a half minutes to play, the Peacocks forced a punt from the Wolves, which went out of bounds at the NSU 40-yard line and looked like it would set up the Peacocks to at least take the lead with a few yards and a field goal try. However, UIU's Bellemy took the handoff on the first play and had the ball ripped out of his arms. The fumble was recovered by Northern State and took the wind out of UIU's sails.
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The Peacock defense made one last stand and forced a final punt giving the home team the ball at their own 23-yard line with 1:46 on the clock. Northern State registered their first sack of the game on first down and then shut down UIU on the final three plays to take over for the win.
Turning Points … Looking back at the game, the big turn came at the end of the second quarter. After UIU had grabbed a 15-10 lead, Northern State took over at their own 34-yard line and converted a pair of short third downs to keep their drive alive. Trautman ran for 14 yards on a 2
nd and 9 and then threw the 19-yard touchdown pass on 2
nd and 9. The score stole the momentum back heading into halftime. The second turning point came on NSU's scoring drive in the second half. UIU's
Daniel Ruffin Jr. forced a fumble on the 16- yard line and it looked like the home team got on the ball, but when the pile cleared NSU had the ball and scored on the next play.Â
Peacocks of the Game… Offensively, freshman
LeVon Bellemy ran for 113 yards and 2 scores on 21 carries and caught 2 passes for 24 yards. Defensively, senior safety
Isaac Barrett made 16 tackles for the Peacocks including a tackle for loss. Barrett led the UIU defense, which is missing five starters from their week one lineup due to injury.
Stats of the Game… Turnovers proved to be the major factor as Northern State claimed a 4-0 advantage in takeaways. The Wolves line controlled the trenches as the visitors rolled up 284 rushing yards on 55 attempts. The ground game allowed NSU to run 80 plays and keep the ball for over 34 minutes, while the turnovers limited UIU to just 60 plays and 26 minutes.
Quotables…
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Up Next… The Peacocks will take to the road and visit Bismarck, N.D. next Saturday, Oct. 12. Upper Iowa and the University of Mary will kick off at _ p.m. in the second week of cross-divisional match ups in the NSIC.
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