Under its new interim head coach, the football team at Northern Michigan University posted a big upset of Davenport in a crazy, four-overtime classic, 47-45, at the Panthers’ field on Saturday afternoon.

The game tied the NMU record for its longest game, matching the number of overtimes in a 34-28 defeat against Tiffin in 2008.

And the Wildcats pulled off this upset doing what they do best — running the ball, and specifically, running it 33 times in the hands of redshirt freshman Noah Dobert.

In a statistical oddity, Dobert has run for exactly 243 yards every time Northern has won a game this season. That included Oct. 18 in NMU’s 42-21 win at Roosevelt, and it happened again Saturday.

Northern Michigan University interim head football coach Billy Lindquist, mostly hidden under the Gatorade and its container, is doused by several of his players after the Wildcats won their second game of the season in four overtimes, 47-45, over Davenport in Grand Rapids on Saturday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

While those yards were certainly impressive, as were his four rushing touchdowns, the most important run may have been his 2-point conversion he scored in the fourth OT that ended the game.

It helped the Wildcats improve to 2-8 overall as Davenport slipped to 5-4 in their second meeting this season, this time considered a nonconference game after the first counted in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference back on Sept. 20 in Marquette.

Lindquist is now 1-0 as interim head man after Shane Richardson resigned on Friday with a three-season record of 1-30. Lindquist had been the associate head coach and offensive coordinator before Richardson was placed on administrative leave a week ago preceding his stepping down.

“I am really proud of the team,” Lindquist said in an NMU Sports Information news release about the game. “Everyone played their roles and we stayed together.

“I couldn’t be more proud of their resiliency. It was a great team win!”

The new head coach was promptly greeted with a Gatorade bath when the game was over, according to NMU SI, as his Wildcats snapped a six-game skid against Davenport, not having beaten the Panthers since 2021.

Dobert now is making his name not only at NMU, and not only in the GLIAC, but around all of NCAA Division II, too.

The conference’s leading rusher by well over 300 yards now ranks in the top five nationally in rushing yards with 1,250 and rushing yards per game with 125.0.

Each of his 243-yard totals place him inside the D-II top 15 for single-game numbers, too, while his 11 rushing TDs are the most at NMU since Jake Mayon, the last Northern 1,000-yard rusher, had 14 TDs in his 1,505-yard season in 2018.

The Wildcats rolled up 344 yards on the ground, not quite totally abandoning the air game as Menominee product and NMU redshirt freshman quarterback Trevor Theuerkauf was just 2 of 5 passing for 32 yards and an interception.

Theuerkauf also gained 28 yards and scored a TD on the ground, while Marquette graduate Tucker Welch was Northern’s No. 2 rusher with 47 yards in 12 tries.

Northern outgained a more balanced Davenport offense by 30 yards, 376-346, as the Panthers threw for 185 yards on 19-of-29 passing and gained 161 on the ground.

Though Davenport tied the game three times in regulation, the Wildcats never trailed until the Panthers had the ball first in overtime No. 2 and took a brief lead then.

With some tweaking of OT rules by the NCAA several years ago, the third overtime and all others that follow are now a series of 2-point conversions.

Both teams Saturday scored TDs and converted first an extra-point kick and then a 2-point conversion in the opening two OTs, those extra periods played along the more traditional OT format with each team getting the ball untimed from the 25-yard line.

After the 2-pointers were converted by both teams in OT No. 3, Davenport had first crack in the fourth OT, but fumbled the ball into the end zone on its try.

So NMU lined up and Dobert plowed his way through to end the game.

While Northern lost the turnover battle, 2-1, the Wildcats also had a big edge in time of possession of more than 16 minutes, 38:11 to 21:49.

On defense, Murphy Monreal had NMU’s interception, also breaking up a pass and making a tackle for loss. Teammate Jeremiah Gossett had a forced fumble and two pass breakups, while Jake Price had his team’s QB sack and a QB hurry, and Xavier Martinez had a pass breakup.

Mitch Larkin was the leading tackler with 11, including eight solo, as Jax Hertel had 10 tackles with three solo.

Despite all the points put up, with each team scoring a TD every time it reached the red zone and converting every fourth down it tried, both teams punted after their first possession.

Northern then put together a 69-yard drive in five plays, the big one Dobert’s 53-yard run to the left that resulted in a TD about six minutes in. Michael Karlen was true on his first of five straight extra-point kicks to make it 7-0.

Starting with that possession, both teams scored every time they touched the ball until the Wildcats kept DU out of the end zone on its last possession of the first half that started with just 31 seconds left. Davenport moved the ball about 50 yards in that time, ending the half on NMU’s 20-yard-line.

That made it 21-14 Wildcats at halftime after Dobert had scored on a 20-yard TD run early in the second quarter and Theuerkauf tacked on a 1-yard TD plunge through the middle with 37 seconds to go in the half.

In the opening half, Dobert rolled up 173 yards on 16 carries, an average 10.8 yards per carry.

After making the Panthers punt on the first possession of the second half, NMU expanded its lead to 28-14 on a grind-it-out, 17-play TD drive that ended with Noah Hofmann’s 1-yard run into the end zone with 35 seconds left in the third. Of the 17 plays, 16 were runs — the other a Theuerkauf 19-yard pass to Jake Heemstra on 3rd-and-10 that moved the ball to the DU 4.

The Wildcats looked like they might’ve put the game away at that point, but instead, the Northern offense stalled in the fourth quarter when both of its turnovers occurred. Each led to a Davenport TD that tied the score 28-28 and sent the game into OT.

The first was a Theuerkauf fumble at his own 16, setting up DU for a single-play drive of the same length as Kayden Collins ran it in.

With 4:01 left in regulation, Theuerkauf was intercepted by the Panthers’ Xavier Marquez at the Northern 20. The NMU defense forced Davenport to use a half-dozen plays before scoring on Cephus Harris’ 5-yard run, and with Ian Jenkins’ extra-point kick, the game was tied 28-28.

All that was needed just to get the game into the first of four OTs.

In OT No. 1, Dobert powered in from six yards out, but Davenport answered after converting a pair of fourth downs, the second one a D’Wan Mathis TD pass to Keonta Nixon, that with Jenkins’ extra point retied it 35-35.

The home team opened the second OT, scoring on another fourth down when Mathis ran in from six yards out and adding a 2-pointer.

Dobert created suspense then snuffed it out all on one play to keep the game going. On the first play of NMU’s subsequent possession, he ran through the middle as a DU defender forced a fumble at the 12-yard line. But Dobert not only recovered the ball but was able to finish running the play right into the end zone.

Still needing a 2-pointer to retie the score, Dobert also did that in a more conventional way, powering in as it now was 43-43 headed to OT No. 3.

Theuerkauf was called on for the 2-point run try in that overtime, successfully of course, then George Sims caught a DU pass to make it 45-45 for the climatic fourth OT, which was when Dobert ended the game when he got his chance.

With the Wildcats winning twice in their past four games, they might now be sad to see the season come to an end, but it will at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Superior Dome when NMU hosts 0-10 Wayne State.

The Warriors had an excellent chance to break its own winless streak, but lost 48-14 at one-win Roosevelt on Saturday.

NMU 47, Davenport 45 (4OT)

Saturday at Grand Rapids

Score by quarters:

N. Michigan 7 14 7 0 7 8 2 2 — 47

Davenport

7 7 0 14 7 8 2 2 — 45

First quarter

NMU — Noah Dobert 53 run (Michael Karlen kick) 9:02

DAV — Cephus Harris 7 run (Ian Jenkins kick) 4:45

Second quarter

NMU — Dobert 20 run (Karlen kick) 13:15

DAV — Clint Walker 27 run (Jenkins kick) 10:08

NMU — Trevor Theuerkauf 1 run (Karlen kick) 0:37

Third quarter

NMU — Noah Hofmann 1 run (Karlen kick) 0:35

Fourth quarter

DAV — Kayden Collins 16 run (Jenkins kick) 9:25

DAV — Harris 5 run (Jenkins kick) 1:18

Overtime #1

NMU — Dobert 1 run (Karlen kick)

DAV — Keonta Nixon 4 pass from D’Wan Mathis (Jenkins kick)

Overtime #2

DAV — Mathis 6 run (Harris run)

NMU — Dobert 25 run (Dobert run)

Overtime #3

NMU — Theuerkauf run

DAV — George Sims pass catch

Overtime #4

NMU — Dobert run

Game statistics

First downs — NMU 19, Davenport 20

Total plays-net yards — NMU 72-376, Davenport 64-346

Rushes-yards — NMU 67-344 (Dobert 33-243, Tucker Welch 12-47, Theuerkauf 12-28), Davenport 35-161 (Mathis 11-45, Harris 15-43)

Comp-Att-Int-Yards — NMU, Theuerkauf 2-5-1-32; Davenport, Mathis 19-29-1-185

Top receivers — NMU, Jake Heemstra 1-19, Dobert 1-13; Davenport, Nixon 4-60, Sims 5-53, Dom Grguric 3-34

Punts-average — NMU 2-41.0, Davenport 3-44.0

Fumbles-lost — NMU 4-1, Davenport 2-0

Penalties-yards — NMU 6-27, Davenport 6-55

Time of possession — NMU 38:11, Davenport 21:49

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