EVANSTON—Northwestern,trying to become Bowl eligible for a record fifth straight year,did so by beating Minnesota 28-13. The Wildcats(6-5, 3-4)scored on their first three series with ease, went into a two quarter snooze,and woke up in the fourth period in time to put the game away.On the first drive of the day, NU wasted zero time going 54 yards and Dan Persa hit fellow QB Kain Colter on a 7 yard scoring play.The Gophers came right back with a fast 66 yard,7 play drive to tie it 7-7 on a 5 yd keeper by QB MarQueis Gray. Then a 42 yard kickoff return by NU’s Venric Mark gave the Cats the ball at the Minnesota 42. This started to look like another one of those NINTENDO type of games,but things would settle down.It came down to a 4th and 8,and Persa found Demetrius Fields in stride for a 28 yard TD score and a 14-7 Cats lead with only 6:47 gone in the game.Hey! Some defense, as the Wildcats stopped the Gophers(2-9,1-6) three and out,and Dan Orseske popped up a NINE yard punt,out of bounds at the Minn 38. How many yards Mrs.Buehler? NIIIIIIINE! Treyvon Green scored the third Cats TD of the quarter and game on a two yard run to make it 21-7. The only score in the next two quarters was a Jordan Wettstein 28 yard field goal with 6:20 before halftime.NU did play like crap in the second and third quarters.The Gophers ran on Cats all day.Minnesota drove to Cats 9  but Brian Peters grabbed a tipped pass in the end zone to stop the drive.This prevented Minny from cutting this to a one possession game.Persa was sacked at his 17 as the scoreless third qtr ended still 21-10 NU.As the 4th quarter started, the Wildcats showed life with Persa hitting Jeremy Ebert,Colter and used the running of Jacob Schmidt who finished the 80 yd,15 play drive by taking an option pitchout around left end for a 1 yard run and a 28-10 Northwestern lead.After Wettstein’s 48 yard field goal ended the day’s scoring,the Wildcats drove again deep into the Gopher end while running down the clock.down to 1:10 before turning the ball over on downs at the Minnesota 9.Jerry Kill used all his timeouts by that time.It ended with the Cats accomplishing their goal.

LES