Northern Iowa routs Monmouth 46-7 in FCS 1st round

Nov 26, 2017, 03:02 am

(STATS) -- With Northern Iowa and Monmouth, it was easy to see which team was appearing in the FCS playoffs for the 19th time and which was making its debut Saturday.

Northern Iowa rolled to a 46-7 rout in the first round as Eli Dunne threw for four touchdowns and the Panthers defense picked off Monmouth's Kenji Bahar four times.

UNI (8-4) has won six of seven games, a run that began Oct. 14 against its second-round opponent, No. 5 seed South Dakota State (9-2). Coach Mark Farley's Panthers will head back to Brookings next Saturday.

UNI, 23-18 in FCS playoff games, tuned up for the showdown of Missouri Valley Football Conference teams by outgaining Monmouth 520-202 in yards and holding the ball for 38 minutes, 37 seconds.

"It was a tough game for us tonight. A lot of the credit for that has to go to Northern Iowa," Monmouth coach Kevin Callahan said. "They executed extremely well out there and gave us troubles in a lot of different areas and that showed in the final score."

UNI's first three touchdowns came on Dunne passes. He added his fourth and the second to Daurice Fountain with 11 seconds left in the first half to make it 33-0. The lead would grow to 46-0.

J'Veyon Browning carried the ball 14 times for 136 yards and Marcus Weymiller added 74 yards on 17 carries. Nikholi Jaghai had a pair of interceptions.

Monmouth (9-3) finished its 25th season as a program -- all under Callahan -- with two straight losses. The Hawks, the Big South runner-up, scored on Bahar's 19-yard touchdown pass to Lonnie Moore with eight minutes remaining.