With the exception of the first quarter, Northern Illinois did not have a whole lot of trouble with Arkansas State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl on Sunday night and took home the bowl championship with a 38-20 victory. While the Red Wolves took a 13-0 lead early on, the scoreboard would read 31-13 in NIU's favor before Arkansas State scored again.
NIU built on an eight-point halftime lead with a 43-yard scoring strike from Chandler Harnish to Martel Moore in the third quarter and a chip shot field goal early in the fourth. Arkansas State finally was able to halt NIU's run at that point with a drive resulting in a 17-yard touchdown pass. But that was as close as they would get, and when the Huskies' Dechane Durante took a Ryan Aplin pass to the house a few minutes later, it was all over.
Aplin threw 58 passes in the game for Arkansas State, which couldn't establish anything on the ground. He also threw three interceptions. NIU's Chandler Harnish was 18-36 for 270 yards, two TDs and one INT.
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