UNI outlasts Cal Poly in overtime, 45-38

CEDAR FALLS - So much for that Cal Poly triple-option we talked about all week.

Without leading rusher Joe Protheroe and amid run-blocking struggles through its first two losses of the season, Cal Poly went off-script enough to keep itself within reach of Northern Iowa via the pass in a tightly contested game that required overtime and ended in the Panthers' favor, 45-38.

The Mustangs opened the scoring with that aforementioned passing game that went on to total an uncharacteristic 238 yards at game's end. Quarterback Khaleel Jenkins found Kyle Lewis on a play-action pass for 44 yards early in the first quarter against a UNI defense that utilized just one safety all afternoon.

Not long after Jenkins and Lewis had taken everyone inside the UNI-Dome by surprise, Eli Dunne was again bit by the turnover bug. Dunne's attempted throwaway of a pass didn't quite make it out of bounds and was picked off by Dominic Frasch.

So, with their backs against the proverbial wall just over halfway through the first quarter, the UNI defense was able to stop the Cal Poly momentum by forcing a fumble on a Jenkins option pitch. That fumble recovery was followed up on the next drive by a Cal Poly sack-fumble of Dunne, and at that point everyone's preconceived notions of the matchup had long since left the building.

The momentum began to swing in UNI's favor in what turned out to be a 28-point second quarter for the Panthers, their highest-scoring quarter since 2015.

The second-quarter scoring began with a 52-yard Trevor Allen touchdown run. On Cal Poly's next drive, Jared Farley scooped up Jenkins' second fumble on an option pitch and took it 52 yards to make it 14-7 UNI. Cal Poly responded with two more over-the-top play-action passes of 34 and 35 yards before the end of the half, with a 21-yard touchdown from Dunne to Fountain sandwiched between.

Before the half came to an end, the shootout no one expected raged on. Dunne led a six-play, 63-yard scoring drive that was capped with a 31-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Graham. Dunne escaped a Cal Poly blitz and found Graham on a route adjustment after extending the play. It was one of a number of times Dunne was able to extend plays and find open receivers on his way to 325 total passing yards.

Coming out of halftime Farley and his staff were not going to allow five completions, 143 yards, and three passing touchdowns allow them to deviate from their run-based defensive gameplan.

'Here's the deal: there (are) no throws unless you stop that run. And that run puts everybody in the box, and, yeah, some guys got away. But that's going to happen with that (Cal Poly) offense,” Farley said. 'That isn't a conventional offense. And you can see when they have to throw it there isn't much they can do with it. But they got behind us. Those things need to be fixed.”

Cal Poly began to look more like itself in the second half, opening with a 14-play drive that featured 12 runs and led to three points, bringing it within 28-24 early in the third quarter.

The Mustangs outscored the Panthers by 11 in the fourth quarter and used a six-play, 91-yard drive with 1:05 left in regulation to tie the game at 38. Jenkins hit Kyle Lewis in stride for a 53-yard score with 5 seconds remaining to push the game into overtime and silence the Panther faithful.

UNI started on offense in the extra period, and after two runs for a total of 12 yards by Christian Jegen, Dunne connected with Fountain on a fade pattern for a 13-yard touchdown, his third of the game.

'I think what we really saw was Daurice take the game over,” Farley said. 'He's confident, he's strong, he's a leader, and he wanted the ball.”

Cal Poly's attempt to match the UNI touchdown lasted only four plays. The UNI-Dome crowd bounced back and was able to play a large part in two false start penalties that put the Mustangs behind the chains, and behind the Panthers for good.

'That's UNI football,” Farley said. 'That's what we've talked about. Yeah, we gave some points up at the end, but to do what we did in overtime and for the players to step up and play the way they did, it was needed by this football team.”