Photos courtesy of NMU Football. Click the AIDIO buttons to hear comments from Coach Shane Richardson, and RRN Casey Ford's call of the final seconds.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.---"The game is over! The nightmare is over!"
So proclaimed the radio voice of the Northern Michigan University Wildcats, Casey Ford, after the Wildcats wrapped up a 42-21 win over the Roosevelt Lakers Saturday in suburban Chicago.
The win was the first since the 2022 season for the Wildcats, and it broke a painful 28-game losing streak that shook the storied program to its core.
So many embarrassing blowout losses, so many heartbreaking close losses. But on this Saturday afternoon in the shadows of the Windy City, where the Chicago Bears plan to build their new stadium, the Wildcats FINALLY had something to be happy about on the gridiron. Not a "moral victory". Not "we played hard, competed hard, but...:"
Finally, a victory. And indeed, it has been a nightmare for the Wildcat football program. But at least for now, that's behind them.
"More than I'm proud of them, I'm happy for them today," NMU Coach Shane Richardson told Ford in the RRN post-game show, as both men talked about their first win together. "Just pure happy for them. The guys in the program are the only people who truly know what we've been through, and what we do every day, how we've continued to stay the course. You see it on the players' faces, man. A lot of them in tears. Big smiles, you know? A lot of mixed emotions. Just super, super happy for them. Super happy for the coaching staff. I told them, 'this is not a one-game deal'."
The Wildcats did not do it because the other team gave it to them, either. Northern shattered a decades-old school record for rushing yards in a game.
The 538-yard total crushed the previous program mark of 477, set 66 years ago in 1959 against UW-Milwaukee. For just the seventh time in NCAA Division II football history, two running backs from the same team rushed for more than 200 yards, with Noah Dobert getting 243 yards and three touchdowns and Jahi Wood adding 233 yards and two scores.
On the negative side, the Wildcats had literally no passing game. They tried only one pass the whole game, and it was incomplete. But the running game was so effective, with the offensive line opening big holes, and Dobert and Wood refusing to be tackled, that no passes were needed.
And Marquette native Austin Ridl, back in the quarterback spot after being injured, and now filling in for the injured Trevor Theuerkauf of Menominee, helped out with a 67-yard touchdown run that jumpstarted the Wildcat offense early on a warm afternoon in Illinois.
"I think Austin Ridl did a great job," Richardson said. "I felt like the offense thought we could control the ball."
Special teams were special, too, with Nicholas Grussen making all six of his extra point kicks.
For Roosevelt (1-5), freshman quarterback Tony Chahino completed 22 of 42 passes for 310 yards and three touchdowns. All together, the Lakers had 450 yards of total offense against the NMU defense, but the 'Cats forced two fumbles and NMU had 38 minutes of ball posssession time, compared to just 21 minutes for the Lakers.
The Wildcats also won the turnover battle 2-1. Jax Hertel created a momentum-swinging forced fumble at the 1-yard line with the game tied 7-7 in the first half. Murphy Monreal was the one who recovered, and he also went on to lead the 'Cats in tackles for the first time in his career with nine. Sam Corey also forced a fumble in the second half, with Jhermari Mabry recovering.
Richardson said he wants his guys to know that this does not have to be a "one-and-done", with four games still left in the season, two of them at home.
And next up, NMU (1-6) will host the hated Michigan Tech University Huskies. That "School Up North" has claimed the MIner's Cup every year for more than a decade, including last year's 39-9 result in Houghton. In 2023, the last meeting in the Superior Dome, it was an embarrasing 62-0 loss for NMU. The last time Northern beat Tech in football was in 2009. That's 14 losses in a row.
"This week will take care of itself in terms of the motivation category," Richardson said. "I think our guys will be more and more dialed in here. I'm excited for Monday to come around again so I can just coach the heck out of them. Full speed ahead."
"We're building, we are climbing, we are growing. This is just a reflection of how we're going to do things and get things better all the time. Obviously, there's more work to do. We're a program that's trying to build things the right way. We're trying to build toward competitive excellence so that, game-in-game out, we can feel this feeling."
Michigan Tech, meanwhile, is 5-2 after losing to top-ranked Ferris State in Houghton on Saturday, 38-10.
"We'll flush this one and look forward to the 'Cats," said Michigan Tech Coach Dan Mettlach, a Gwinn native who was on the NMU Coaching Staff from 2007-2009. Saturday's Miner's Cup game at the Dome will start at Noon, and will be broadcast live on FM-100.3 in Marquette, FM-93.5/AM-600 in Escanaba, and on-line at www.radioresultsnetwork.com.
Who knows what will happen next Saturday? Or on the road the next two weeks against nationally-ranked Ferris State and Davenport? Or in the final home game of the season against Wayne State?
But to repeat what Casey Ford said, at least for the next few days, the nightmare is indeed over.
