{"id":522488,"date":"2026-11-08T05:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T05:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/522488\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T05:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T05:50:20","slug":"nius-muffed-punt-failed-fake-punt-fuel-loss-at-san-jose-state-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/522488\/","title":{"rendered":"NIU\u2019s muffed punt, failed fake punt fuel loss at San Jose State \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

NIU <\/a>interim head coach Rob Harley spent the week talking about limiting catastrophic plays by his young team. <\/p>\n

Then senior DeAree Rogers, the Huskies\u2019 leading receiver, muffed a punt early in the third quarter. A failed fake punt followed, and winless NIU lost 30-19 Saturday at San Jose State.<\/p>\n

The two plays turned a 16-13 halftime deficit into a 17-point hole.<\/p>\n

The Huskies defense forced a three-and-out on the Spartans\u2019 first possession of the second half. Rogers muffed the punt, and San Jose State (5-5, 3-3 Mountain West) recovered at the NIU 18.<\/p>\n

The Spartans converted a third-and-5 on a 9-yard pass from Daniel Rolovich to Carson Clark. Viliami Teu ran four straight times from the 4 and scored on fourth down from the 1, putting San Jose State up 23-13 with 9:32 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll take a look at it, and we\u2019ll continue to coach it,\u201d Harley said. \u201cIt\u2019s just tough in that situation, but the defense has to go out and bow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

On its next drive, NIU (0-9, 0-5) faced fourth-and-10 at its own 37 and tried a fake punt. Jake Ference lost 8 yards on the run. Rolovich hit Dominique McKenzie for a 29-yard touchdown on the next play, and the Spartans led 30-13 with 6:09 left in the third.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to create some momentum with a possible punt fake,\u201d Harley said. \u201cObviously, it didn\u2019t work out.\u201d<\/p>\n

NIU answered with a 10-play drive to the San Jose State 7 but was stopped on a fourth-and-1 run.<\/p>\n

The Huskies scored late on an 85-yard, 10-play drive. Telly Johnson Jr. opened it with a 33-yard run, Taron Dickens hit Zaire McKinney for 17 yards, and Elijah Porter added a 17-yard run. Dickens finished it with a 1-yard touchdown run, his first rushing score of the season. The two-point try failed with 3:55 to play.<\/p>\n

NIU outgained San Jose State 400 yards to 316. Dickens completed 26 of 36 passes for 259 yards and a touchdown, spreading completions among eight receivers. La\u2019Don Bryant had a career-high seven catches for 55 yards, Rogers had six for 86, and Porter ran for a game-high 85 yards.<\/p>\n

San Jose State built a 13-0 lead over the first 18 minutes. Teu took a direct snap on fourth-and-1 from the 5 for a touchdown. Trajan Sinatra added field goals of 25 and 46 yards. The second field goal came after Matthew Scarlett strip-sacked Rolovich, but the Spartans recovered the fumble.<\/p>\n

NIU tied it with two 81-yard drives. Johnson scored on a 4-yard run to make it 13-6. Dickens then threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to McKinney, a freshman, to tie it at 13 with 3:25 left in the half. Sinatra\u2019s second 46-yard field goal sent San Jose State into halftime up 16-13.<\/p>\n

\u201cZaire\u2019s touchdown was big,\u201d Harley said. \u201cHe\u2019s a young guy that had some big plays today, and that increases confidence when you play well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freshman linebacker Jack Murray led NIU with nine tackles. Defensive end Kole Sneed had a season-high six tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and a pass breakup. Defensive tackle Amari Washington had four tackles and a half tackle for loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NIU interim head coach Rob Harley spent the week talking about limiting catastrophic plays by his young team.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[199768,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-522488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-niu-huskies-football","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}