Central Michigan University
Northern Illinois
CMU Gives No. 16 Northern Illinois a Scare, Falls 40-24
10/11/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (AP) - Central Michigan safety James King says to forget all that talk about stocky Michael Turner being deceptively fast.
"He's just fast," King said Saturday after the Northern Illinois tailback ran for a season-high 199 yards and two touchdowns as the No. 16 Huskies overcame a slow start to beat Central Michigan 40-24.
Turner, listed at 5-foot-10 and 232 pounds, finished the game with 4,049 yards rushing in his career, making him the 10th Mid-American Conference player to run for at least 4,000 yards.
The Chippewas (2-4, 0-3 MAC) jumped out to a 17-0 lead in their Homecoming game and kept the Huskies out of the end zone in the first half.
But the second half was all Northern Illinois (6-0, 2-0), which outscored the Chippewas 28-7 in the third quarter en route to its 13th victory in its last 14 games. Last week, Northern Illinois beat Ohio 30-23 in overtime.
"I wasn't too worried about the score at halftime. I was worried more about how we were playing," said Huskies head coach Joe Novak. "We have been down in every game this year, so our kids are used to it."
Central Michigan's Kenan Lawhorne ran for a touchdown and caught a scoring pass. Derrick Vickers passed for 215 yards and a touchdown, but also threw four interceptions.
The Chippewas led 17-3 at halftime. Although they entered the game ranked next-to-last in total defense among Division I-A schools, they stymied Northern Illinois during the first half.
The Huskies were held to 68 yards rushing in the half on 19 carries, despite Turner running for 71 yards in the opening quarter. The team had minus-11 yards rushing in the second period.
Turner said his team had a "sloppy" first half but after halftime, the Huskies called some different plays and his offensive line made some adjustments.
He credited Central Michigan's defensive players - such as King, who led all players with 14 tackles - for their inspired first-half play.
"They did a great job of holding me down," said Turner, who carried the ball 28 times to average 7.1 yards.
Central Michigan quarterback Derrick Vickers gets a pass away under pressure from Northern Illinois' Jason Frank. Vickers passed for 215 yards in a 40-24 loss to Northern Illinois.  | |
Teammate Sam Hurd caught four passes for 109 yards, including a 42-yard reception.
Central Michigan head coach Mike DeBord said his team is "just a few plays away from being successful."
"The defense played well today, well enough to win," he said. "The big problem was we continued to put our defense in bad situations when we turned the ball over or had a punt blocked. If we want to compete, we cannot put them in those situations."
Northern Illinois' lone first-half score came on a 23-yard field goal by Steve Azar on the final play of the second quarter. He finished with four field goals and 319 career points, second all-time in the conference.
The Huskies opened the second half with 21 straight points. They pulled to 17-10 when Turner took a pitch from Josh Haldi and raced 46 yards up the left sideline for a touchdown.
Northern Illinois also scored in the third quarter on a 1-yard TD run by backup quarterback Ryan Gilbert, who filled in after Haldi suffered a slight concussion, and 2-yard rushing scores by Turner and A.J. Harris.
Haldi said he expected to play next week.
Lawhorne had a 12-yard rushing touchdown and a 13-yard TD reception.
The Chippewas' Terrence Jackson ran for 90 yards, including a 1-yard touchdown run that opened the scoring.
