5:24 First Quarter; Northwestern 3, Penn State 3
Penn State won the coin toss and elected to kick to the Wildcats to start off the game. Simmons had a solid return to the 36-yard line, but a holding call on Northwestern brought the Cats back to the 12. Mike Kafka started the game with a bullet pass to Andrew Brewer, who added yards after the catch for a gain of 13 yards to the 25. On second down, a fake handoff by Kafka might have faked him out too, as Kafka fumbled the ball, and Penn State recovered at the 24.
On first down, Daryll Clark nearly hit Graham Zug for a touchdown, but it was knocked away by Brendan Smith. On second down, Clark completed a pass to Derek Moye for a first down. On the ensuing play, Royster ran the ball for three yards to the 10-yard line. Clark tried to get the ball to Zug on a fade, but Brad Phillips had good coverage on him. On a big third down, Penn State could not snap the ball in time and had a delay of game, costing them five yards. Clark went for Zug again in the end zone, but newly-named starter Ricky Weina broke up the pass. A 32-yard field goal attempt by Collin Wagner was good. Penn State takes an early lead, 3-0, but give the NU defense credit for preventing a Nittany Lions touchdown.
Simmons took the kickoff return again, but this time was only able to get back to the 18-yard line. Kafka completed the pass to Scott Concannon for a gain of nine. Kafka then hit Brewer for eight more yards and a first down. He couldn’t make the completion to Sidney Stewart, but got a pass in to Brewer for six yards on second down. On their first third down of the game, Kafka found Stewart for five yards and a first down. Concannon had the first rush of the game for NU and picked up two, but on second down he carried again and lost five yards. On a long third down, the Cats tried running a screen pass to Jacob Schmidt, but could only muster nine yards, prompting a Stefan Demos punt. Fortunately for NU, Penn State was hit with an illegal substitution penalty, which gives the Cats a first down and a second life. Zeke Markshausen got his first action of the game on a rush, in which he looked like he would pass, but only got tow yards on the carry. He went back to what he did best on second down, catching a Kafka pass for nine yards and a first down. On the first down, Charles Brown couldn’t hold onto a pass that was thrown slightly behind him. Kafka went right back to Brown on a short pass, which only netted two yards. On another third-and-long, Kafka ran and was “ushered out-of-bounds” after picking up the necessary yards for a first down. The Cats then brought themselves back five yards after Markshausen was flagged with a false start. He couldn’t make up for his error on first down, as he gained only two yards on a pass play. Kafka then picked up six yards on the quarterback keeper. On third and seven, Kafka was forced out of the pocket and had to throw the ball away. Demos comes out for a 34-yard field goal attempt and nails it. NU ties the game up 3-3.
