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Jordan Lynch had another great day, rushing for a career-best 4 touchdowns and passing for one as the Northern Illinois Huskies routed the Minutemen. NIU amassed 612 total yards - 354 on the ground - in just 25 minutes with the football. UMass had the ball for 35 minutes, 10 more minutes than NIU, but was able to only gain 324 yards (169 passing, 155 rushing) and find the endzone just once.
For NIU it was a game of quick possessions in the first half, as the Huskies scored 4 touchdowns in just 9 minutes!. After UMass took an early 3-0 lead on their first possession, Lynch and the Huskies countered just three minutes later on a 6-yard scamper by Lynch. After giving up a second field goal, it took just a 1:20 for Lynch to run in his second TD, a 25-yard rush. And just four minutes after that, he did it again - running in from 10-yards out. Unbelievably, just 61 seconds later Cameron Stingily ran in his only score of the day.
After the onslaught of NIU scores, UMass put together it's best drive, going 83 yards on 9 plays, capped off with a 1-yard carry by Lorenzo Woodley - who proved himself a very capable back. Woodley had career highs in carries and yards - gaining 163 yards on 38 carries. The game was over by halftime however, with NIU leading 42-13.
The Huskies pulled their starters early in the third, after Lynch's fourth TD run. From then on both teams played rather sloppy, each turning the ball over twice, and just netting a pair of UMass field goals. It wasn't until the fourth quarter that NIU would score again, when they added a pair of TDs by third string QB, Drew Hare
The Huskie quarterbacks, Lynch and Hare, combined for 170 rushing yards, threw for 258 yards and had 7 scores between them. Lynch, who only played 35 minutes, rushed for 119 and went 10-13 passing for 160 yards and a 66-yard TD pass to Juwan Brescacin. Hare was just 2-4 passing, but had 98 yards, including an 81-yard TD pass to freshman Chad Beebe.
As for UMass, outside of Woodley's performance and their kicker Brenden Levengood (who was 4-4 on field goals, all over 40 yards), there weren't too many highlights for the Minutemen. Mike Wegzyn, starting for the injured A.J. Doyle, was 10-25 passing with 169 yards and 2 pics. Tajae Sharpe lead all UMass receivers with 5 catches for 65 yards