UNI football starts fast and doesn’t let up in 50-6 rout of Western Illinois

CEDAR FALLS — Northern Iowa cruised to a 50-6 Missouri Valley Football Conference win Saturday afternoon against Western Illinois (0-9, 0-6 MVFC).

The rout began quickly with three first-quarter touchdowns.

“That was kind of what we emphasized all week is that we wanted to come out fast. That’s why we took the ball out of the gate (because) we wanted to score out of the gate,” UNI (6-3, 5-1) Coach Mark Farley said. “We were in sync. We were hitting the run. We’ve got to do some (things) in a way to experiment for what could (happen) in the future once we start getting (injured) players back.”

A five play, 70-yard drive capped with a 27-yard touchdown pass from Theo Day to Sergio Morancy started the Panthers’ scoring.

Wide receiver Jaiden Ellis-Lahey fumbled in the red zone on the next possession, but the Leathernecks gave it back with their own fumble three plays later. Amauri Pesek-Hickson ran for a 6-yard touchdown on the first play of the drive.

The UNI defense then forced a turnover on downs as Tate Sander stopped Matt Morrissey’s scramble at the UNI 38. UNI was back in the end zone five plays later after a 40-yard tipped pass to Logan Wolf preceded a 2-yard Day touchdown pass to Alex Allen.

Western Illinois’ misfortunes ratcheted up on its next possession as a bad snap on a punt attempt from its own 8-yard line led to punter Jared Campbell taking a safety.

The Panthers once again breezed through the Leathernecks defense with an eight-play, 58-yard touchdown drive that ended with Pesek-Hickson running through two WIU defenders for a 2-yard touchdown.

UNI’s streak of three drives ending in touchdowns came to an end late in the first half as Western Illinois stopped the Panthers at the 4 and provoked a 22-yard Matthew Cook field goal for a 33-0 halftime margin.

“They know they can win. They know they can find a way to win and they’ve started playing like that as a team,” Farley said. “Before we were pieces of a puzzle and we were OK. Now, we’re more of a team where you can start to see everybody operating together.”

Any hopes of a competitive second half ended for Western Illinois just four plays into the third quarter as Tucker Langenberg picked off Morrissey and Tye Edwards busted loose for a 29-yard touchdown run on the next play, extending the lead to 40-0.

“In warmups today, (Edwards) looked like he was ready and he ran like that today,” Farley said.

The Panthers added 10 points with their starters out on a 14-yard Aidan Dunne touchdown pass to Brady McCollough and a 28-yard Cook field goal.

Cook — who extended his program record streak of consecutive made PATs to 150 — became the program’s all-time leading scorer in the win, passing David Johnson with 385 points and finishing the game with 394.

“It’s just been an amazing run. I grew up watching UNI. I grew up watching David Johnson,” Cook said. “To surpass someone of his caliber with the all-time points record is just a surreal feeling. I never could have dreamt anything better than my career here at UNI.”

Day finished 12-of-16 passing for 201 yards and two touchdowns. Edwards and Pesek-Hickson added 99 and 74 yards rushing, respectively.

Sam Schnee led UNI’s receivers with four catches for 54 yards while Langenberg and Caleb Frazer tied for the team lead with six tackles each.

UNI’s defense held Western Illinois to 144 total yards and just 17 rushing yards on 33 attempts.

“It’s kind of our trademark of what we always try to do first,” Farley said of stopping the run. “But, it’s our D-line, (they’re) really good.”

The Panthers travel to Missouri State (3-6, 2-4) next Saturday for a 2 p.m. kickoff at Robert W. Plaster Stadium.