A record number of fans got the scare of their lives Saturday, as Iowa State rallied to beat rival Northern Iowa, 28-27.

The Cyclones trailed 21-7 with less than a minute to play in the third quarter, flirting dangerously with losing to a Division I-AA opponent in their final nonconference game of the season.

A school-record crowd of 55,518 was in attendance to see the Cyclones move to 3-2 on the season.

“I guess we gave them their money’s worth,” coach Dan McCarney said. “That was a great college football game.”

Jon Davis caught a touchdown pass with 1:05 to play in the game, giving Iowa State its first lead since it was 7-0 early in the first quarter.

With the wind out of its sails, Northern Iowa didn’t give up, marching down the field to set up a potential game-winning field goal.

But Brian Wingert, who had already made two field goals on the night, missed a 51-yard try with just seconds remaining, allowing Iowa State to squeak away with the win.

“That’s a real impressive team we beat out there tonight,” McCarney said. “Regardless of what level, what conference, that’s an impressive team. That’s the best UNI team I’ve ever coached against.”

The ISU defense had no answer for Northern Iowa, which used short passes mixed in with timely running plays to move the football almost at will.

UNI quarterback Eric Sanders finished the night 23-of-29 passing for 158 yards and a touchdown. He hit on his first 12 passes of the game and 15 of his first 17.

Sanders’ favorite target of the night was James Lindgren, who had seven catches for 73 yards. Entering the game, Lindgren had nine catches for 100 yards in Northern Iowa’s first three contests.

Both teams scored on their first possessions of the game, with the Cyclones getting a 1-yard run from Ryan Kock to cap a 14-play, 80-yard drive.

The Cyclones got the ball back after a UNI touchdown and were driving again, before quarterback Bret Meyer’s pass was intercepted by Dre Dokes and run back for a touchdown. Northern Iowa added another score to take a 21-7 lead into the locker room at the half.

Iowa State came back in the second half, cutting the UNI lead to seven after Meyer hooked up with Todd Blythe for a 22-yard touchdown. Blythe tipped the ball in the end zone, batting it in the air to himself for the diving catch.

The Cyclones tied the game at 21 on a Ryan Baum punt return for a score early in the fourth quarter. The return was the first ISU punt return touchdown since Todd Miller scored against Troy State in 2002.

But then things took a turn for the worse.

UNI added a field goal with 8:54 to play, regaining the lead at 24-21. The Cyclones drove the length of the field, with Meyer hitting Flynn for a 35-yard catch and run.

But just as Flynn was about to hit the end zone, he fumbled, and the Panthers recovered.

“I was trying to do too much,” Flynn said. “This is a team game and 10 other guys came and picked me up and won the game for us.”

The Panthers couldn’t take advantage of the mistake and were forced to punt. Baum fielded the punt but fumbled, which Northern Iowa recovered. Fortunately for the Cyclones, there was a penalty on the Panthers on the play, forcing another punt.

The second punt went off Baum’s fingers and into the hands of a UNI defender, giving the Panthers back the football.

This time UNI scored, kicking a 32-yard field goal to take a 27-21 lead with two minutes to play.

“We don’t have two better kids in this program, who care about this team and their teammates [more] than Ryan Baum and Austin Flynn,” McCarney said.

“They made a couple mistakes, but we couldn’t have won the game without those two kids.”

Meyer calmly led Iowa State on its game-winning drive, hitting Davis for 25 yards on the first play and running for a first down a couple plays later. Then, with a first down from the UNI 16-yard line, Meyer found Davis in the corner of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.

Meyer finished the game 24 of 29 for 323 yards. Davis had his second career 100-yard receiving game, catching seven balls for 117 yards.