UNI seniors go out in style

The University of Northern Iowa football team honored 21 seniors prior to Saturday's 34-0 win against Western Illinois University.  The game represented the last time the seniors will lace up their cleats, put on their pads and the purple home uniform inside the friendly confines of the UNI-Dome, at least for a regular season game. 

The seniors are nearing the end of their careers and have posted a record of 38-11 overall and a 23-5 mark at home. They have captured back-to-back conference titles and playoff appearances the past two seasons. With the victory against the Leathernecks, the Panthers are hoping to make their third straight playoff appearance. 

UNI improved to 7-3 overall and 5-2 in the Missouri Valley Football Conference with the win against WIU in front of 11,070 fans. This was the Panthers' second shutout of the season and the sixth time this season UNI has held an opponent to seven points or less. This is the only the fifth time in school history that WIU has been held scoreless.  The loss dropped the Leathernecks to 1-9 on the season and 0-7 in MVFC. 

The No. 11-ranked Panthers dominated in nearly every statistical category. They outgained WIU 398-112 in total yards. The UNI defense showed their dominance by intercepting three passes and preventing the Leathernecks from converting any third or fourth down tries. WIU was 0-11 on third down conversions and 0-2 on fourth down conversions. 

The Panthers took the ball down the field on their first possession and converted on a seven-yard Ryan Mahaffey touchdown catch from senior Pat Grace.  The scoring drive consumed nine plays, 73 yards and four minutes and 40 seconds off the clock to put the Panthers up 7-0. The drive set the tone for the rest of the game with UNI dominating and working at their pace. 

The next score came in the middle of the second quarter when Jarred Herring caught a short pass, proceeded to break a couple of tackles and outrun everyone else to the end zone. It ended up being a 56-yard touchdown pass from Grace for the quick score that only took three plays, 62 yards and 1:29 off the play clock.  Billy Hallgren knocked in a 42-yard field goal before halftime to go up 17-0. Hallgren added a 37-yard field goal on the Panthers' first possession of the second half. 

On the first place of the fourth quarter, Grace found fellow senior D.P. Eyman for an 18-yard score. Then just plays later, senior Quentin Scott picked off a Will Lunt pass and ran it back 45 yards for a pick six. Hallgren added his fourth extra point of the day to put the Panthers up 34-0. 

Grace completed nine of 17 passes for 213 yards including three touchdown passes.  Grace was also the leading rusher with 63 yards on 15 carries. Senior Derrick Law carried the ball 17 times for 63 yards to end his career in the UNI-Dome. Schuylar Oordt was the leading receiver, catching three balls for 79 yards, while Herring finished the game with 72 receiving yards and a touchdown.

The Panthers racked up 185 rushing yards in the game, which was below their average of 199.67 yards per game entering Saturday's game. The running game has been a huge part of the Panthers' success thanks in part to starting five seniors (Austin Howard, Nate Herrig, Austin Steichen, Jason Fiacco and Jordan Limbaugh).  The line has allowed only nine sacks all year and allowing the Panthers to have the 11th best rushing attack in all of FCS football. 

Seniors Wes Lane and James Ruffin each registered 1.5 sacks and Ben Boothby stepped up with 1.5 sacks of his own in the win. Jordan Smith and senior Chuck Kinney led the Panther defense with eight tackles each. Scott had two interceptions including the 45-yard interception return for a touchdown. His performance earned him MVFC Defensive Player of the Week honors. Andre Martin also intercepted one WIU pass. 

The Panthers will wrap up their regular season next Saturday in Normal, Ill., against Illinois State University with kickoff slated for 1 p.m. The Panthers' hopes for a third straight playoff appearance will be most likely be gone if they cannot find a way to beat the Redbirds. ISU is currently 5-5 overall and 4-3 in MVFC games.