The ISU football team fell to Northern Iowa 28-20 on Saturday, Aug. 31 in its season-opener at Jack Trice Stadium.

The loss was Iowa State’s first home-opening loss since it fell to Kent State 23-14 in 2007. The Cyclones also fell to the Panthers that year, 24-13.

“Great performance and a great victory for them,” said ISU coach Paul Rhoads, regarding Northern Iowa. “We’ve got an opportunity to go back and regroup and get to the film tomorrow with open minds and make large improvement on a daily basis.”

UNI running back David Johnson got the Panthers on the scoreboard first with a 37-yard touchdown run with 6:13 left in the first quarter. Iowa State came back with a touchdown of its own when quarterback Sam Richardson connected on a 59-yard pass to Justin Coleman to tie the game at 7.

In the second quarter, however, Northern Iowa scored 14 points to hold a 21-7 advantage. Johnson caught a nine yard pass from quarterback Sawyer Kollmorgen to begin the quarter and with 6:52 left in the half, ran it in from 27 yards out.

The Cyclones would respond with a seven yard pass from Richardson to running back James White and Iowa State went into the break down 21-14.

The ISU defense held the Panthers scoreless in the third quarter while the ISU offense produced two Cole Netten field goals to bring the Cyclones within one, 21-20.

Johnson added his name to the UNI record book in the fourth quarter when he scored his fourth touchdown of the game, the most by a UNI player in a single game. The score came from a Kollmorgen pass and went for 29 yards to give Northern Iowa a 28-20 advantage.

Iowa State recovered a UNI fumble at its own one yard line with 1:44 remaining in the game, but couldn’t convert on a fourth and seven opportunity with 27 seconds remaining.

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