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Salukis overcome forgettable first half to oust UNI

SIU football head coach Jerry Kill said he never looks back.

But in reflection of a disastrous first quarter trick play, Kill, in his own way, admitted that he regrets calling the halfback pass that resulted in Northern Iowa's first touchdown Saturday at McAndrew Stadium.

Shortly after the first of four interceptions set the Salukis up at the Northern Iowa 28-yard line less than five minutes in to the Homecoming game, SIU called a timeout to discuss the upcoming second-down play.

Sambursky took the snap at the 15, gave the ball to Terry Jackson on a sweep to the right and rolled the opposite direction. Jackson took a few steps, stopped in his tracks and heaved the ball to Sambursky, who appeared to be open.

But waiting for the pass was Northern Iowa's Dre Dokes, who leaped for the interception and weaved 95 yards to draw first blood. Two years ago, Kill called the same play with former SIU running back Brandon Robinson throwing the pass, and it worked.

"I was a hero, and now I'm a turd," Kill said to a room of laughing reporters following the game. "I made a horses***call, and you can print that. My wife will tell you it's horses*** too because it went 95 yards the other way."

The trick play that fooled nobody was only the beginning of an altogether wretched first half for the Salukis. Each time something good happened, another equally, if not more terrible play would occur soon after.

Kill said it is "amazing" the Salukis ended up winning the Gateway opener 40-36 over the visiting Panthers given so many first half mistakes.

"I should have been out fishing somewhere in a big boat because it was very frustrating," Kill said about the forgettable first half. "It was just difficult to get in the flow of that game."

First there was Brandon Bruner's interception in the first quarter that was followed by the 95-yard interception return by Northern Iowa.

The bad luck continued on the ensuing possession when an Arkee Whitlock fumble was recovered by UNI on its own 49. UNI quarterback Tom Petrie finished the drive with a two-yard touchdown run to make the score 14-0 early.

After an interception by Jarmarquis Jordan early in the second quarter set SIU up at the UNI 37, a Saluki personal foul on first down moved the offense back 15 yards.

Facing 3rd-and-20, Sambursky found Brent Little streaking through the middle. Little hauled in the pass and jetted through the defense before leaping, with arms and legs flailing, for a 19-yard gain that brought life back to McAndrew.

But on fourth-and-one Arkee Whitlock was stuffed for a three-yard loss. Northern Iowa took the ball and drove 69 yards for another touchdown.

Once again, momentum killed.

"In my entire career I've never seen so many crazy, odd mistakes that just happened to us," Sambursky said.

Trailing 20-0 on Homecoming with 12,326 confused fans looking on, the Salukis needed something - anything - to give them a spark. Running back and punt return specialist Craig Turner heard his teammates talking about it, so the freshman did something with 3:57 left in the first half.

"On the sideline I was looking at a couple of the guys and they were like, 'We need to get this started. We need to get some kind of momentum,'" Turner said. "I looked at them and I was like, "Well, I'm going to do my best to start something.'"

Turner received a punt at the SIU 42-yard line and somehow escaped from a pack of Northern Iowa jerseys. One Panther defender stood Turner up with a hit that nearly forced his momentum backward, but he stood his ground. When Turner revved his motor back up, there was nothing but daylight in front of him.

The 58-yard score narrowed the gap to 20-7, and about two minutes later a shifty 69-yard catch by Quorey Paine for his first of two touchdowns narrowed the gap to 20-14 with 2:12 to go.

But the Salukis' misfortune continued even after the back-to-back scores. With 10 seconds remaining in the first half and the Salukis still trailing 20-14, Petrie faked a handoff up the middle on which SIU safety Alexis Moreland bit momentarily.

Northern Iowa had been content with running the ball to seemingly kill the clock, but when Petrie fired a bomb over the middle, Patrick Hunter got behind Moreland and hauled in the 48-yard score on the last play of the half.

As any great player would, the All-American accepted the blame for the touchdown. "That was just bad technique on my part. I ended up getting flipped around and he got behind me," Moreland said.

Still, despite the mishaps, turnovers and penalties, the Salukis found a way to win. SIU outscored Northern Iowa 26-10 in the second half, always coming up with the big play when it needed it.

"The thing we can hang our hat on is that we were in the same situation at Northern Illinois, and we told our kids that," Kill said. "We've been down before. We've got a lot of history in our program that we can go back to in order to keep them going."

Kill and the Salukis added another chapter Saturday.