Miami Hands Huskies 29-23 Loss

Scott Walstrom, NIU

Game Recap: Football | November 16

Two Huskies Rush for 97 Yards

DeKALB, Illinois – Miami (Ohio) quarterback Aveon Smith rushed for 105 yards and threw for 185 to lead the RedHawks to a 29-23 win over the Northern Illinois University Huskies Wednesday night at Huskie Stadium.
 
Three big plays led to 16 of NIU’s 23 points as the short-handed Huskie offense struggled at times against the RedHawks, who boasted the No. 1 rushing defense in the Mid-American Conference.
 
“That’s a strong defensive front,” said NIU head coach Thomas Hammock. “They are going to ‘plus one you’ in the run game and they certainly tried to do that all night. We found some creases, but we have to have more consistency on first and second down.”
 
The Huskies totaled 200 rushing yards with both freshman Jaiden Credle and sophomore Antario Brown rushing for 97 yards on the night. Credle ran for 55 yards on the Huskies’ first offensive play to set up a 31-yard John Richardson field goal, giving NIU a 3-0 early lead. 
 
Brown scored on a career-long 86-yard run with six seconds left in the third quarter, pulling NIU back within three points of the RedHawks at 26-23 after a bad snap on the PAT try. Miami had built a 26-17 lead on Graham Nicholson’s 44-yard field goal with 8:24 to play in the third quarter and a Smith to Mac Hippenhammer 47-yard touchdown pass at the 48 second mark.
 
In his second career start and just his third collegiate game, quarterback Nevan Cremascoli had his most effective outing as he completed his first nine passes and finished the game 14-of-22 for 165 yards and two touchdowns.  However, his last pass was intercepted by MU’s John Saunders Jr. on the Miami 18 with 4:43 to play, as the Huskies were driving for a late score to take the lead. The Huskies had marched from their 25 to the Miami 25 with Cremascoli completing passes of 13 and 19 yards to Shemar Thornton and Kacper Rutkiewicz, respectively, sandwiched around a Jaiden Credle eight-yard run. Another pass to Rutkiewicz was good for a fourth down conversion before a holding penalty pushed the Huskies back prior to the interception.
 
“We have a small margin for error,” said NIU head coach Thomas Hammock of his Huskie team that was without two additional starters on offense Wednesday. “We have to play clean football for four quarters, and we didn’t play clean enough. We didn’t have enough consistency on offense. On defense, we gave up too many third down plays. We knew [Smith] was going to run and we had people there and we couldn’t corral him.”
 
Cremascoli connected with tight end Liam Soraghan for a 15-yard touchdown pass to give NIU a 10-0 first quarter lead before a Huskie fumble in the end zone that later went out of bounds at the two-yard line gave Miami a safety. Smith scored on 10 and 15 yard runs in the second quarter to give Miami a 16-10 halftime lead.  The Huskies spent most of the second quarter inside its own 25-yard line and did not have a first down in the period.  A blocked punt helped lead to Miami’s second touchdown after the RedHawks started on their own 49.
 
NIU (3-8, 2-5 MAC) took the lead for the last time on the first drive of the second half with Cremascoli finding a wide open Kacper Rutkiewicz for a 53-yard touchdown, putting the Huskies ahead 17-16. Miami improved to 5-6, 3-4 with the win.
 
The Huskies went 0-for-9 on third down conversions in the game. Each team punted seven times. C.J. Brown led NIU with seven tackles, while Devonte O’Malley provided a defensive highlight with a strip sack and fumble recovery.
 
NIU plays its final game of 2022 at home on Saturday, November 26 versus Akron when eight Huskie seniors will be honored. Kickoff is at 12:30 p.m and the game can be seen on ESPN3. Watch for the Black Friday ticket deal with $15 reserved seat tickets, get a free Huskie black replica jersey as well as concessions deals. See complete details on NIUHuskies.com Thursday.
 
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