On Saturday, Sept. 8, the UNI football team traveled to Saint Paul, Minnesota for a matchup with St. Thomas. Having won the season opener at home the week before, the Panthers were looking to take their winning ways with them on the road trip. In a game that proved to be a good test for the Panthers, they were able to leave St. Thomas with a narrow 17-10 victory.
The Panthers started the game on a great note when they stuffed St. Thomas on a fourth down conversion attempt on the first drive of the game. The turnover on downs occurred in Tommie territory, so the Panthers got great field position at the St. Thomas 34-yard line. The Panthers were unable to convert on the great field position when Caden Palmer missed a 28-yard field goal.
The Tommies would mount a scoring drive on their next possession as Michael Rostberg completed a 13-yard pass to Patrick Wagner for the score. Things started going even worse for the Panthers when a punt was blocked deep in their own territory. Although the Panther defense was in a tough position with the Tommies having great starting field position at the UNI 19-yard line, they were able to stop them and a missed field goal kept the score at 7-0.
Early in the second quarter the Panthers mounted a scoring drive of their own, and finished it off with a 3-yard touchdown run by Amauri Pesek-Hickson. Neither team was able to get another score in the first half, and the score was 7-7 going into the halftime break.
After stopping the Panthers on the first drive of the second half, the Tommies put together a long drive that ended in a 50-yard field goal from Stephen Shagen to take a 10-7 lead in the third. The UNI offense continued to struggle in the second half, but caught a big break early in the fourth quarter. Deep in St. Thomas territory, the Panthers’ Tucker Langenberg came up with a big block that set up the Panthers with first and goal from the 7-yard line. The offense was unable to punch it in, but a field goal from Palmer tied up the game at 10-10.
The Panthers got the ball back with just under seven minutes left in the game, and started with the ball at their own 10-yard line. Tye Edwards quickly flipped the field with a massive 56-yard run, and between him and Pesek-Hickson, they ran the ball all the way down the field. Deep in St. Thomas territory, Edwards fumbled the ball in what could have been a disaster, but Pesek-Hickson was able to scoop it up and ran it in for his second score of the day.
The Tommies got a solid drive going on the next possession, but the Panthers defense was ultimately able to get the stop and the Panthers would escape with the 17-10 victory. The victory marked the first time the Panthers have started a season 2-0 since 2013.
The Panthers were pushed to victory in great part because of running backs Edwards and Pesek-Hickson. The two backs combined for 226 yards, 143 coming from Edwards, and 87 from Pesek-Hickson. Pesek-Hickson also had both of the Panthers touchdowns on the day.
The Panthers will be on the road again next week when they travel to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska to play against Nebraska on Saturday, Sept. 14.
