Western Michigan 17, Northern Illinois 13

The play was as ugly as the weather, but Western Michigan grinded out a 17-13 win over Northern Illinois on a dark, overcast day to get to 2-0 in the MAC West.

The Broncos got 226 passing yards from sophomore quarterback Tim Hiller, who went over 3,000 career passing yards, and also got 104 yards on 27 carries from senior back Mark Bonds.

After some early fireworks, the two squads settled in and played a contest that wasn’t too appealing to the eye, but counts as a crucial win for Western Michigan (2-0 West, 2-1 MAC, 3-4 overall) nonetheless.

After D.J. Pinkle recovered a Brandon West fumble on Western’s first possession, NIU’s Chris Nendick booted a 22-yard field goal, putting the Huskies on the board first. Western Michigan took over at its own 21, and on the drive’s second play, Hiller threw a nifty slant pass to Juan Nunez, who dashed 77 yards angling left to right across the field, before stepping out of bounds at the NIU 2. The Broncos couldn’t score, however, and settled for a 21-yard kick by Mike Jones.

The Huskies quickly answered when WR Marcus Perez threw a 59 yard touchdown pass to a wide open Matt Simon on a little gadget play, giving NIU the lead back, 10-3. After a few punts, WMU took over at the NIU 42 thanks to a short punt by the Huskies’ Andy Dittbenner. It took the Broncos only 8 plays to score from there, with Bonds leaping in from a yard out to tie the game.

From that point on, what transpired was a mostly non-descript game, with both teams struggling to move the ball and establish any kind of down field threat. But after the game, WMU head man Bill Cubit didn’t care much how the victory looked.

“Anytime you come in to DeKalb and leave with a win, you’re very happy with your team,” Cubit said.

DeKalb is traditionally a tough trip for visiting MAC schools, with the steeply raked stands and typically raucous crowds. The fans topped 20,000 in attendance, and did their part, making noise on several key second half possessions, but the home town Huskies (0-3 West, 0-4 MAC, 1-6 overall) couldn’t move the ball consistently on offense.

The Huskies’ Justin Anderson continued his stellar season on the ground, posting his fifth straight game of 130 yards or more. Anderson has been remarkably consistent during the streak, rushing 28 or 29 times in four of the five, and landing somewhere between 157 and 168 yards in the previous four.

However, Northern Illinois’ problems on offense resulted mostly from a lack of playmakers other than Anderson. The sophomore back carried on 29 of Northern’s 33 running plays, and Huskie Coach Joe Novak joked that he’d seen this scenario play out before.

“I tell you guys every week that we’ve got to get away from it (giving Anderson so many carries), don’t I?” Novak asked reporters with a smile. “But it just keeps happening.”

The offensive burden for the Huskies fell even more squarely on Anderson’s shoulders with usual starting QB Dan Nicholson out to injury. Sophomore Ryan Morris got the first start of his NIU career, and put up competent numbers (13 of 25, 144 yards), but wasn’t successful throwing the ball down the field or on converting third downs. NIU was just 1 of 13 on third down conversions in the game.

Both teams squandered easy field goal chances that could have proved costly. Leading 13-10 before half, Anderson broke down the right sideline for a 52 yard gain to the WMU 10. After three Anderson carries resulted in a net gain of two yards, Chris Nendick shanked a 25 yard field goal attempt with 15 seconds left in the half.

Later, in the early fourth quarter, Bronco kicker Mike Jones pushed a 22-yard field goal wide, preventing WMU from expanding their 4 point lead.

Next week, the Broncos get Ball State in a crucial MAC West showdown while Northern Illinois heads to Wisconsin.