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Despite dominating most of the game, the NIU football team couldn’t find the end zone until late in the half and led Toledo 16-14 at halftime.
Key play: More like a key series of plays, starting when Clint Ratkovich had a short touchdown run called back on review. Still on third and 1, NIU was then called for a false start, then couldn’t convert the third down and Josh Richardson missed a 22-yarder, keeping the game at 3-0.
Key stat: NIU gained 286 yards in the first half but couldn’t get in the end zone until the final 36 seconds on a 36-yard run by Antario Brown.
Key to the second half: This one is easy. The costly mistakes have to stop. The Huskies at the same time are lucky to be leading, but also should be up like three scores. But untimely penalties combined with some poor choices by quarterback Rocky Lombardi have NIU in a dogfight.