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UNI recovers from early deficit to beat Lamar in FCS first round, 16-13

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - University of Northern Iowa linebacker Duncan Ferch (39) celebrates with teammates Korby Sander (5), Jarred Brinkman (44) and Bryce Flater, left, after the Panthers forced a fumble in the third quarter of their 16-13 win over Lamar University in the first round of the FCS Playoffs on Saturday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

CEDAR FALLS — Things didn’t look good for the University of Northern Iowa football team after the first few drives against Lamar University in the first round of the NCAA FCS playoffs on Saturday in the UNI-Dome.

The Panthers allowed the Cardinals touchdowns on their first two possessions, and while UNI was able gain yards it couldn’t finish off its drives, leading to a 13-3 deficit through the first 15 minutes.

From that point on the Panthers dominated in almost every facet of the game, scoring 13 unanswered points in the next three quarters to down Lamar, 16-13, and move on to the second round to face the University of California-Davis next week.

UNI head coach Mark Farley, who earned his 15th playoff victory in the last 18 years at the helm for the Panthers, said the first quarter didn’t go their way, but he felt a change in the team as the game wore on.

“When we got more towards the end of the second quarter and halftime we were actually in real good shape,” he said. “For all the things we had gone through, we were sitting at 13-13 and I felt that we had weathered the storm. That’s kind of what happens in these games, there’s always a rush of momentum and it’s always who can sustain the game. I thought we had the potential to because of our offensive line and the way we play defense and our special teams are very good. We are fortunate and happy, but these guys played their tails off. We earned this win and these guys should be happy.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - Northern Iowa defenders Bryce Flater (22), Duncan Ferch (39) and Brawntae Wells (91) stop Lamar running back A.J. Walker for a short gain during the second half of the Panthers’ 16-13 win over the Cardinals in the first round of the FCS Playoffs in the UNI-Dome.

Lamar (7-5) was playing in its first ever appearance in the FCS playoffs, and at the start it looked like the more experienced squad. Cardinal quarterback Darrel Colbert Jr. was unstoppable in the first quarter, running for 28 yards on six carries and adding 137 yards through the air and two touchdowns just in the first 15 minutes.

“We could not catch him and we could not get him on the ground,” Farley said of Colbert. “There was a lot of adjusting to the speed, they were very fast and we had to adjust to it. Then we found out he had as good of strength as he had the quickness and the speed so that really caused us problems.”

After the first quarter, however, the Panthers (7-5) figured Colbert out. He had just 131 yards and no touchdowns in the final three quarters, and UNI sacked Colbert five times.

“What we did well was calm down, it was frustrating for the players early but when we calmed down and stayed in the plan and adjusted to the speed we started playing good football again,” Farley said.

A huge factor in that adjustment was Panther senior linebacker and former West Marshall standout Duncan Ferch, who finished with a team-high 10 tackles. Farley said there has been so much turnover at the linebacker position this season due to injury and Ferch being the steadying force there is one of the main reasons why the team is where it is today.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON - University of Northern Iowa receiver Jaylin James, left, makes a catch over Lamar defender Rodney Randle Jr. (20) during the third quarter of the Panthers’ 16-13 win over the Cardinals in the first round of the FCS Playoffs in the UNI-Dome on Saturday.

“Duncan is very intelligent and there’s a lot of adjusting going on defensively as you can imagine today,” Farley said. “You can’t make those kind of adjustments unless you have a player on the field who can make those adjustments quickly, and with one word Duncan can make everything work for us out there. On defense there were multiple adjustments and Duncan was able to do that for us and keep everyone on the same page.”

There was yet another injury in the linebacking corps after halftime, as Alonso Lambert went down in the early going of the third quarter after tying with Ferch for second on the team in tackles in the first half.

That only opened the door for redshirt freshman and former Grundy Center star Bryce Flater to step up and make his presence known. Flater wasn’t even listed on the depth chart at the start of the game and has mainly played on special teams this season, but when the Panthers needed him most he stepped up in a big way.

Flater had six total tackles in the second half, including a sack in the third quarter on the first play after Lamar got the ball on the UNI 21 from an interception. That sack eventually forced a field-goal attempt, which the Cardinals would miss.

“Bryce really was a difference, I told [linebacker coach DJ Vokolek] in the locker room that Bryce may have been in the difference in the third and fourth quarter because he was making a lot of tackles on the run game,” Farley said. “He will run and he will hit you when he gets there.”

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

Like Flater’s sack in the third quarter, Elerson Smith had a huge takedown of Colbert on the Cardinals’ second-to-last drive that again led to a missed field goal, which would have tied the game. Then, when Lamar got the ball back with 15 seconds left and no timeouts, Smith came up with his second sack of the game that essentially sealed the victory for the Panthers.

Not only did UNI have timely sacks, it forced three fumbles by Lamar and held the Cardinals scoreless in the red zone. Flater had a hand in one of those fumbles, stopping a third-quarter drive with a timely hit that helped jar the ball loose.

On the offensive end, where the Panthers struggled to get anything going in the pass game they excelled on the ground.

As a team, UNI had 239 rushing yards in the win, with running backs Marcus Weymiller and Trevor Allen each eclipsing the century mark with 128 and 112 yards respectively.

“We knew they were fast and I thought the strength of our team is we have a good offensive line and some good tight ends, and I knew they were going to play man-to-man coverage all day on us,” Farley said. “If they are going to do that then you have to defend the run too, and that was kind of the plan to test that.

T-R PHOTO BY THORN COMPTON

“Trevor ran super hard, Marcus always runs hard, and I told one of the coaches in the locker room that when they were trying to come up with a play at the end to get us some yards, the play was Marcus Weymiller. Go with who got you here, go with your horse, and Marcus found a play. Trevor did the same thing all night long, they made plays and made runs. Eli may have made the biggest run all game with his scramble down the sideline and that made the points to win the game.”

Panther quarterback Eli Dunne didn’t have a spectacular game, finishing with 107 yards, a touchdown and an interception on an 8-for-21 line in the air, but most of his completions at just the right time.

The lone UNI touchdown of the game came on a 32-yard strike from Dunne to Jalen Rima on a busted coverage that left Rima wide open for the score. Farley said plays like that and the team’s ability to use the run when they’ve averaged 127.1 yards per game on the ground prove just how well his offensive coaches did their job on Saturday.

“I thought it might have been the most well-coached offensive football game adjustment-wise that I have been a part of in a long time,” he said. “The adjustments were going on all the time as far as trying to figure out our passing routes, like the double-move for the touchdown and the wildcat for the third down at the end there. All those things came about as the game unfolded, so I think that may have been one of the best adjusted, well-coached offensive football games I’ve been in in a while.”

Panther kicker Austin Errthum was the main offensive weapon on Saturday night. He had makes from 21, 44 and 35 yards, including the game-winner with 13:09 left in the fourth quarter, and Farley said at this time of year the entire team has to click to earn a victory.

“When you get in the playoffs you’re going to be in close games, and kicking was the difference in this game, their kicker versus our kicker,” he said. “When we crossed the 50 he is live, and he has that range. The accuracy is really what matters as a kicker, and he hit some big kicks today.”

UNI now moves on to the second round of the FCS playoffs where it will face No. 6 UC Davis in Davis, Calif., on Saturday, starting at 6 p.m.

Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs

First Round

Saturday, Nov. 24

Duquesne 31, Towson 10

Wofford 19, Elon 7

Southeast Missouri St. 28, Stony Brook 14

Montana St. 35, Incarnate Word 14

James Madison 20, Delaware 6

Nicholls St. 49, San Diego 30

Northern Iowa 16, Lamar 13

Jacksonville St. 34, ETSU 27

Second Round

Saturday, Dec. 1

Jacksonville St. (9-3) at Maine (8-3), 11 a.m.

James Madison (9-3) at Colgate (9-1), Noon

Wofford (9-3) at Kennesaw St. (10-1), 1 p.m.

Montana St. (8-4) at North Dakota St. (11-0), 2 p.m.

Duquesne (9-3) at South Dakota St. (8-2), 2 p.m.

Southeast Missouri St. (9-3) at Weber St. (9-2), 3 p.m.

Nicholls St. (9-3) at Eastern Washington (9-2), 4 p.m.

Northern Iowa (7-5) at UC Davis (9-2), 8 p.m.

——

Northern Iowa 16, Lamar 13

At Cedar Falls

Lamar 13 0 0 0 — 13

N. Iowa 3 10 0 3 — 16

First Quarter

LAM–Banks 73 pass from Colbert (run failed), 14:23.

UNI–FG Errthum 21, 12:21.

LAM–Robinson 25 pass from Colbert (Martinez kick), 7:29.

Second Quarter

UNI–FG Errthum 44, 8:16.

UNI–Rima 32 pass from Dunne (Errthum kick), 1:59.

Fourth Quarter

UNI–FG Errthum 35, 13:09.

TEAM STATISTICS

LAM UNI

First downs 19 19

Rushes-yards 44-149 50-239

Passing 268 107

Comp-Att-Int 14-27-1 8-21-1

Return Yards 7 123

Punts-Avg. 4-46.8 6-40.2

Fumbles-Lost 3-3 1-0

Penalty-Yards 4-32 5-70

Time of Possession 27:48 32:12

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–Lamar, M. Wanza 14-85, A. Walker 11-28, B. Arnold 1-23, D. Colbert Jr. 18-13. N. Iowa, M. Weymiller 29-128, T. Allen 18-112, E. Dunne 2-(minus 1).

PASSING–Lamar, D. Colbert Jr. 14-25-1-268, D. Thompson Jr. 0-1-0-0. N. Iowa, E. Dunne 8-21-1-107.

RECEIVING–Lamar, K. Banks 2-77, T. Givens 2-56, J. Ruffin 3-49, C. Robinson 3-34, D. Gaston 1-25, M. Wanza 2-21, D. Thompson Jr. 1-6. N. Iowa, J. James 4-55, J. Rima 1-32, D. McShane 2-13, B. Moore 1-7.

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