AMES – In his first start for the Northern Iowa football team, West Marshall graduate Duncan Ferch tallied four total tackles, three of them solo, in the Panthers’ 25-20 win against Iowa State on Saturday night at Jack Trice Stadium.

The Panther defense, which found Ferch in the play-calling middle linebacker role, forced four turnovers, tallied three sacks and seven tackles for loss. Both AJ Allen and D’Shawn Dexter forced a fumble, including Dexter’s game-saving forced fumble on Mike Warren on Iowa State’s second-to-last drive, and Jared Farley’s interception with 9 seconds left.

With the Cyclones’ offense marching, Dexter booted the ball from Warren’s arms, giving the Panthers the ball back at midfield.

“There was a lot of youth out there today. A lot of newcomers,” said Northern Iowa football coach Mark Farley. “And how they prepared for this day and how they prepared for this game really showed up today. They had the confidence to finish what they started. That was a great team win.”

Redshirt freshman Hezekiah Applegate was one of three underclassmen starting on Northern Iowa’s defense Saturday. Applegate was only behind Farley in tackles with seven, including four solo stops, a sack and 2.5 tackles for a loss. Farley tallied eight tackles, four on his own, and on Sunday was named the Missouri Valley Football Conference’s Defensive Player of the Week.

Karter Schult had two sacks and three tackles for loss.

“I’m very pleased with the defense,” Farley said. “The first thing we had to do was stop the run, to even get them to throw the football. We did a great job against the rushing game. With Hezekiah as a newcomer, I saw him being really relentless inside. We expect that from Karter and Preston [Woods], but we really saw that relentlessness from Hezekiah.”

Former South Tama County High School punter Sam Kuhter was called upon eight times, booting the ball 352 yards for an average of 44 yards per punt. He had four punts go for more than 50 yards, including a 58-yard bomb in the second half. Three times Kuhter pinned the Cyclones inside their own 20-yard line.

The Panthers are at home against Montana on Saturday, with kickoff slated for 4 p.m. at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.