But redshirt freshman running back Noah Dobert did earn the award from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference after his 243-yard, three-touchdown day in the Wildcats’ 42-21 victory at Roosevelt that broke a 2 1/2-year-long, 28-game losing streak.

Sophomore running back Jahi Wood had numbers nearly as good, 233 yards and two TDs, as Northern amassed a program-record 538 rushing yards — to go with no completed passes on just one attempt — that is also the highest team rushing total in a single game across all of NCAA Division II this season.

With Northern breaking a team record by more than 60 yards that dated back to 1959, Dobert opened his scoring day with a 10-yard TD run about a minute and a half before halftime that gave NMU a commanding 21-7 lead.

But Roosevelt, with a healthy passing attack, kept battling back and making Dobert’s final two scores in the fourth quarter a necessity. He got one on a 6-yard run with 8:36 left that rebuilt a three-score advantage, 35-14, then scored the game’s final TD, a 2-yarder, with 2:25 left that all but salted away the result.

The 5-foot-11, 197-pound native of Dearborn averaged 6.1 yards per carry while toting the ball 40 times.

He had plenty of support from Wood, who “only” had 28 carries and thus averaged 8.3 yards per rush.

Dobert and Wood also became just the seventh pair of teammates to both exceed 200 yards rushing in the same game in Division II history.

And somewhat surprisingly, the longest play of the game, and season too, was by one of the team’s quarterbacks. Marquette Senior High School graduate Austin Ridl only had three rushing attempts, but one was a 67-yard option run that produced a second-quarter TD. He finished with 62 yards after some negative yardage on his other two carries.

The trio were credited with consistently moving the chains to the tune of 25 first downs, and the Wildcats having an edge in time of possession by 16 1/2 minutes.

Dobert also leads NMU in rushing this season with 797 yards in 146 rushes, a 5.5-yard-per-carry average along with 113.9 yards per game. He’s No. 1 in the GLIAC by close to 200 yards, with second-place Mason McKenzie of Saginaw Valley State at 618 yards.

Northern will attempt to extend its win string to two games at noon Saturday when the Wildcats host Michigan Tech in the annual Miner’s Cup game in the Superior Dome.

NMU’s attempt to stop the Huskies from winning their 15th in a row in this series is also scheduled to be televised on WLUC-TV6 or Fox-U.P.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the honor. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.