Northern Michigan University running back Noah Dobert, front left, gallops past multiple Wayne State defenders while gaining some of his Wildcats-record 406 yards rushing in their GLIAC game played at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Saturday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — Without ever seeing Arizona, you can still call the Northern Michigan University football team and its redshirt freshman running back Noah Dobert a phoenix rising from the ashes.

Of course, that “phoenix” has nothing to do with the southwestern U.S. state’s largest city, instead using the mythical bird to illustrate a remarkable turnaround for a Wildcats team that went from compiling a 28-game losing streak to winning three of their final five games.

Northern capped off its resurgence with a dominating 45-11 victory at the Superior Dome over winless Wayne State to finish the season at 3-8 overall, 2-5 in the GLIAC.

Oddly enough, this was NMU’s first win in the newfound success that came in Marquette, the others a 42-21 victory in suburban Chicago over Roosevelt and a 47-45 quadruple-overtime triumph over Davenport in suburban Grand Rapids.

And it was Dobert, a second-year player from Dearborn who saw his first consistent action this season, that led the Northern offense with an incredible 406 yards rushing, breaking the school’s single-game record by nearly a hundred yards, and in the process, setting the single-season mark by more than 150 yards.

Not to mention, he also set the Wildcats’ single-season record for rushing touchdowns, too.

Dobert rolled up his record yardage number in 32 rushes, four of them TDs, a 12.7-yard-per-carry mean, to give him 1,656 yards this season. This was his third game of at least 200 yards this fall, each coming in NMU’s victories.

The old single-game record was 317 yards set by Mark Bossuah in 2007, while the season mark that might’ve looked unattainable before this game was 1,505 yards set by Jake Mayon in 2018.

Dobert finished with 15 rushing TDs, breaking Mayon’s mark by one of that same year.

Rolling up rushing TDs of 56, 52, 64 and 72 yards, he also led the Wildcats to their best rushing season ever with 3,123 yards, more than half of them his own yards, crushing the old team record of 2,660 yards set in 2018.

Under interim head coach Billy Lindquist’s second game at the helm, Dobert made NCAA Division II history, rolling up the highest individual single-game rushing performance this season — and a top-five mark all-time in Division II. He finished just 19 yards shy of the all-time D-II record of 425 yards set by South Dakota Miners’ Connor Silveria, coincidentally in Mayon’s record year of 2018.

“So proud of the team!” Lindquist said in an NMU Sports Information news release about the game. “It was a great team win. We complement each other really well.

“Just so happy for the team. It was a such a great way to send the seniors off!”

Northern rolled up 92 points in Lindquist’s two games as head coach.

On Saturday, the Wildcats scored three TDs in the first 18 minutes — two by Dobert — to establish a 21-0 lead, adding three more scored in the third quarter — again, two of them by Dobert — to put the game away.

Wayne State scored the game’s final TD in the last six minutes to reach double digits on the scoreboard.

With the Warriors struggling to score this season — they averaged a league-low 11.8 points per game entering Saturday and hit it just about on the button — Northern held a 488-171 advantage in yards, including 466-73 on the ground.

Wayne State actually had more passing yards, 98-22, as NMU freshman quarterback and Menominee product Trevor Theuerkauf was called on to only throw seven passes, completing one for a 22-yard TD to Sebastian Boyea and also tossing an interception.

Led mostly by Dylan Kress, a pair of WSU QBs were 13 of 33 for just under a hundred yards with a TD but also two pickoffs.

NMU won the turnover war 3-1, an area that had been a sore point throughout the long losing streak.

The Wildcats defender making both interceptions was Jeremiah Gossett, who also had a pair of pass breakups.

Fellow Northern defender Joe Mueller had the team’s fumble recovery, while Jacquille Brown had five pass breakups along with a half-tackle for loss.

Jax Hertel led NMU tacklers with 12 to go with a pass breakup, while Mitch Larkin made seven tackles, six solo, along with a tackle for loss and three QB hurries. Teammates Jake Price and Eli VanBuren each had a QB sack, Price also getting two QB hurries and VanBuren a total of two tackles for loss.

In addition to Dobert, fellow back Noah Hofmann added 40 yards rushing in 10 attempts, including a 3-yard TD early in the second quarter.

Boyea’s catch was NMU’s final TD about 10 minutes into the second half, with Dobert getting 56- and 52-yard scoring runs in the opening quarter, then even longer TD scampers of 64 and 72 yards in the first five minutes of the third quarter.

Michael Karlen hit all six of his extra-point kicks while also making a 41-yard field goal just past the midpoint of the fourth period.

Some other statistics were fairly even — each team was called for nine penalties, while NMU actually had less of an advantage in time of possession than usual, 32:14 to 27:46. Northern was 4 of 12 on third-down conversions, WSU 2 of 13; while the Wildcats were 1 of 2 on fourth-down tries and the Warriors 0 of 1.

NMU 45, Wayne St. 11

Saturday at Superior Dome

Score by quarters:

Wayne State 0 3 0 8 — 11

Northern Michigan 14 7 21 3 — 45

First quarter

NMU — Noah Dobert 56 run (Michael Karlen kick) 13:48

NMU — Dobert 52 run (Karlen kick) 4:59

Second quarter

NMU — Noah Hofmann 3 run (Karlen kick) 12:55

WSU — Avery Burch 44 FG 9:57

Third quarter

NMU — Dobert 64 run (Karlen kick) 13:04

NMU — Dobert 72 run (Karlen kick) 10:10

NMU — Sebastian Boyea 22 pass from Trevor Theuerkauf (Karlen kick) 5:17

Fourth quarter

NMU — Karlen 41 FG 6:55

WSU — XaVior Tyus 15 pass from Dylan Kress (Drew Hickmott pass from Kress) 5:25

Game statistics

First downs — Wayne St. 13, NMU 18

Total plays-net yards — Wayne St. 58-171, NMU 61-488

Rushes-yards — Wayne St. 25-73 (Tyus 14-67), NMU 54-466 (Dobert 32-407, Hofmann 10-40, Lucas Koskey 4-17)

Comp-Att-Int-Yards — Wayne St., 13-33-2-98 (Kress 13-32-2-98, Justyz Tuggle 0-1-0-0); NMU, Theuerkauf 1-7-1-22

Top receivers — Wayne St., Tuggle 5-55, Tyus 4-23; NMU, Boyea 1-22

Punts-average — Wayne St. 6-36.5, NMU 3-43.7

Fumbles-lost — Wayne St. 3-1, NMU 1-0

Penalties-yards — Wayne St. 9-70, NMU 9-86

Time of possession — Wayne St. 27:46, NMU 32:14

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.