The Chicago Sun-Times: Christensen keeps Huskies at bay - Lockport product seals it with late touchdown pass

When the final ''why'' is entered into the ledger of NIU football 2006, the tale of the vulnerable big one that got away will be accented in Hawkeyes black and gold. Despite a first half rendered futile by offensive meekness, NIU (5-4) hung around long enough to benefit from Iowa miscues and make a match of it deep into the fourth quarter.

In the end, with a crowd announced as a sellout of 70,585 at Kinnick Stadium hunched to the beaks on their Herky the Hawkeye seat cushions, it took a masterful touchdown pass from Iowa redshirt freshman Jake Christensen to John Deere tight end Scott Chandler on a fourth-and-four from the Huskies' 10-yard line to seal the victory. The capper came with 3:56 left and pushed the Iowa lead to 24-14.

The Courier News: Huskies' hex against Big Ten Conference teams continues

"The first half wasn't very good," said Novak. "We didn't do much on either side of the ball. I'm certainly proud of the way we came back in the second half. We had a chance to make a few plays but couldn't quite get it done."Senior tailback Garrett Wolfe again was held in check, rushing nine times for 10 yards in the first half before getting some momentum in the second half and finishing with 66 yards on 22 carries. His long gain for the day was 11 yards, however, and he hasn't had a run for more than 14 yards in three weeks. His per-game average has dropped to 164.3 yards.