DeKalb, Ill.- The Eastern Michigan University Football team traveled to North Central, Illinois to take on the Northern Illinois University Huskies, losing by a score of 20-13 and the Eagles fell to 4-4 (2-2) on the season.
Overview:
For more than 17 minutes, EMU held the lead against the Huskies, but two fourth-quarter scores for Northern Illinois which included a field goal at the beginning of the quarter and a touchdown with just over a minute to play was enough for Northern Illinois to defeat the Eagles for the third year in a row.
The Eagles have not beaten the Huskies since Dec. 12, 2020, which was during the Covid-shortened season. The score of 20-13 is the fewest points the Eagles have allowed on the road this season. In 2022, the Eagles only allowed fewer than 20 points on the road once, in a win at Ball State.
Starting the first four MAC games at the 2-2 mark, it is the third consecutive season in which the Eagles have started conference play winning two of their first four conference games.
Dominant Defense
The defense of both teams is the story of the game. The quarter where the most points were scored came in the first, as each team scored seven points to combine 14 in the opening quarter. Outside of the first, the most points scored in any quarter the whole game was in the fourth, where NIU scored 10 points.
Despite the dominance of the defense for NIU, Eastern Michigan was only forced to punt four times the entire game, one of which included a 68-yard punt for junior punter Mitchell Tomasek (Columbus, Ohio), which came at the 7:58 mark in the fourth quarter to keep the game tied at 13.
Individual Players:
Eastern Michigan’s only touchdown of the game came from running back Samson Evans (Crystal Lake, Ill.). Evans now has 34 rushing touchdowns in his Eastern Michigan career, extending his school record by one more score.
In addition on special teams, Jesus Gomez (Puebla, Mexico) would go on to make two field goals in the game, with his longest coming from 37 yards. Gomez has now made multiple field goals in three different games this season but also hasn’t done it since the second week at Minnesota.
On defense, Kempton Shine (Chicago, Illinois) led the Eagles in tackles with nine, and all of them were solo tackles. The total of tackles is five off of his career-high of 14 done against Central Michigan on Nov. 27, 2020, but the total is tied for the second-high in his career also having nine against Western Michigan on Nov. 16, 2021.
Austin Smith (Ellenwood, Georgia) was not able to get things going for Eastern in the loss against Northern Illinois as he only threw for 151 yards and also threw two interceptions. His long pass of the day was 37 yards, and he was only able to complete 53.8% of his passes that were thrown against the Huskies. Struggling to find his targets, the Eagles’ leading receiver was Hamze El-Zayat (Dearborn, Michigan), who had just 74 yards for the Green and White.
How The Game Ended:
Having a 13-10 lead going into the fourth quarter, the Eagles had a tough time making stops late in the game. The Huskies’ last drive of the fourth quarter was 15 plays for 80 yards which included getting four first downs as well.
The game-changing moment came on a 2nd down and 10 and only at the EMU 36, the Huskies found some running room on the right side to get a first down inside the five-yard line, and Northern Illinois scored three plays later, and they forced Eastern Michigan to burn two timeouts during the process.
After Northern Illinois scored, the Eagles were able to get the ball back with 1:06 to go in the game. The Eagles were able to pick up a first down and get to NIU territory, but snapping it with 30 seconds left, Smith threw a pass that was tipped and intercepted to end the game, sealing a victory for Northern Illinois over Eastern Michigan for a third straight year.
Up Next:
Eastern Michigan comes back home next weekend to take on the Broncos of Western Michigan University for what will be the final Saturday game before weekly night MACtion comes.
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