Sports

DEKALB, Ill. — The main difference about the latest loss for the Miami University football team was how, this time, the RedHawks were close. Agonizingly close. So close they could taste it.

Miami quarterback Daniel Raudabaugh took two shots at the end zone for a game-winning touchdown pass from the Northern Illinois 15-yard line in the closing minutes.

But as Miami coach Shane Montgomery said, "When (your defense) is dropping eight (defenders back), there aren't a lot of holes back there."

Both passes were tipped away, and NIU held on for a 17-13 victory at Huskie Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 11, sending Miami to its third straight loss. The RedHawks are now 1-5 overall, 0-2 in the Mid-American Conference.

Miami rallied from a 10-point deficit to take a 13-10 lead late in the third quarter, but the Huskies answered immediately with a 63-yard touchdown drive capped by Chad Spann's 2-yard run.

"I felt like everybody on defense played as hard as we've played all year," Miami senior linebacker Clayton Mullins, a Fairborn grad, said. "Today, they made the plays, and we didn't. We didn't do what we had to do. We gave up the big plays, which killed us."

NIU's offense had five plays of more than 20 yards. Miami's offense had none, though the RedHawks did notch the most spectacular big play of the day when sophomore Eugene Harris returned a punt 63 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter.

NIU took a 10-0 lead when redshirt freshman quarterback DeMarcus Grady threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Landon Cox with 10:11 left in the second quarter. The Huskies' first points had come on a 38-yard field goal by Mike Salerno early in the first period.

Harris' punt return kept the RedHawks close, but their offense did not puncture the NIU end zone or even score a point until the final play of the half when senior Nathan Parseghian kicked a career-long 44-yard field goal as time expired to tie the game at 10. Then he gave Miami its first lead with a 35-yard field goal four minutes into the third quarter.