DEKALB — Gavin Williams ran for 125 yards and a touchdown, Jaylen Poe added 98 yards and two scores and Northern Illinois used a big second half to beat Massachusetts 34-20 on Saturday at Huskie Stadium.
NIU (3-2) trailed 13-6 at halftime but used a huge ground attack to rally for the victory, piling up 249 of its season-high 367 rushing yards in a 27-point second half. Ethan Hampton was 5-of-9 passing for 34 yards and added 64 rushing yards and a touchdown for the Huskies, who were playing without injured starting running back Antario Brown.
The rushing totals for Williams, Poe and Hampton were all career highs.
Poe ran for a 22-yard touchdown to make it 13-13 with 11:23 left in the third quarter, and Poe’s 3-yard scoring run about a minute into the fourth quarter capped a 13-play, 75-yard drive that took 7-plus minutes off the clock and gave Northern Illinois the lead for good at 20-13.
The Huskies made it 14-point game when they went 90 yards in nine plays, capped by Williams’ 1-yard run with 5:29 to play. Taisun Phommachanh threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to T.Y. Harding to pull UMass (1-5) within 27-20 about 2 minutes later, but Poe returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards to the 4, and three plays later Hampton’s 1-yard TD run with 2:05 to play capped the scoring.
On the game’s second play from scrimmage, Jalonnie Williams recovered a Phommachanh fumble at the UMass 15, and Hampton threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Brock Lampe to give the Huskies a 7-0 lead just 45 seconds in to the game.
Phommachanh hit Harding for a 58-yard touchdown pass about 2 minutes later, and Jacob Lurie kicked a 27-yard field goal early in the second quarter and a 27-yarder just before halftime that gave the Minutemen a six-point advantage.
Phommachanh was 15 of 30 for 263 yards, and Harding finished with four receptions for 85 yards.
Tribune news services contributed.
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