Schofield's Last-Second Field Goal Lifts Salukis Past Panthers

Saturday, October 24

Carbondale, IL

1 PM

Southern Illinois University

4-5 , 2-3

Northern Iowa

3-4 , 2-2

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Final F
UNI	7	0	3	7	17
Southern Ill.	0	10	7	3	20

10/24/2026 | 7:04:00 | Football, General

Box Score Game Book vs. UNI Photo Gallery

By: Todd Hefferman, SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Everyone deserves a standing ovation once in their life. Weston Schofield got one better Saturday night against No. 21 Northern Iowa.

Schofield, Southern Illinois' kicker, hadn't missed a field goal attempt this season before lining up from 31 yards out. With the score tied at 17-all, a miss would have pushed the Salukis and Panthers into overtime. Schofield's drive through the uprights as time expired sealed SIU's 20-17 win, and sent him into the clouds.

The team, fortunately led by some offensive linemen, picked up the 5-foot-8, 155-pound true freshman and tossed him up as if he was at a rock concert. "Weston! Weston! Weston!," they shouted.

It was just the beginning of a celebration that stretched to the stands, where the Salukis sang "Go Southern Go!," and into the locker room inside the Boydston Center. Quarterback DJ Williams rushed for two touchdowns and the defense had 11.0 tackles for loss to snap a three-game losing streak.

"To watch a team that's lost three games in a row, against a ranked opponent, to come and get a win that we needed in the worst way, I was kind of emotional coming off the field," SIU coach Nick Hill said. "Honestly, just watching them, Weston, them celebrating. The locker room. I said 'I'm gonna keep it quick' in the locker room, and let them enjoy that."

Schofield added a 21-yard field goal right before the end of the first half to give the Salukis (4-5, 2-3 Missouri Valley Football Conference) a 10-7 lead. He is now 8 for 8 on the season on field goal attempts and 14 of 15 on extra-point attempts.

UNI (3-4, 2-2) retook the lead on Blake Pankratz's 32-yard field goal with 6:19 to go in the third quarter. Pankratz's kick capped a 15-play, 62-yard drive that ate up more than eight minutes of the clock. The Panthers nearly used the clock as a secret weapon against SIU, holding the ball more than 17 minutes more than the Salukis had it at the Blackout Cancer game.

Williams' go-ahead touchdown with a minute to go in the third was nearly enough to hold off UNI. The Panthers tied the game off Cyrus Courtney's 6-yard touchdown grab in the back of the end zone from Jaxon Dailey. Courtney's catch was originally called out of bounds with 2:10 to play, but the call was overturned after replay review.

The review official saw Courtney's hand and shoulder touch the ground before his feet, giving him the score.

Williams and Quade Chatmon put the team on their backs to squeak out the win in front of an announced crowd of 5,206 fans. Williams' 11-yard run for the first down got the Salukis to their own 48. Chatmon, a 6-foot, 205-pound sophomore who entered the game averaging 4.7 yards a carry, went right up the middle for a 12-yard gain into Panther territory.

Chatmon's 15-yard run around the right side of the line got SIU to the UNI 19 and forced the Panthers to take the first of their three timeouts. The Salukis ran it two more times to make UNI burn its timeouts and set up the game-winning try.

Williams rushed for 89 yards on a team-high 14 carries. The 6-3, 218-pound right-hander completed 12 of 21 passes for 112 yards. He was intercepted once and sacked once.

Chandler Chapman had 55 yards rushing on seven carries, and Chatmon finished with 36 on seven attempts. Five different receivers caught at least one pass in SIU's first win since Sept. 26 at Murray State.

Dailey completed 26 of 41 passes for 240 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

Linebacker Ben Fiegel picked off Dailey late in the first half and returned it 36 yards to the 12 before getting pushed out of bounds. The Salukis reached the UNI 3 before settling for Schofield's first field goal and the 10-7 lead. Fiegel finished with seven tackles. Fellow linebacker Andrew Behm had a team-high 12 stops, linebacker Charlie
Whelpley had 10, and starting safety Matthew McClelland also had 10.

Defensive end Ibrahim Sanogo had eight stops, including 4.5 tackles for loss and a sack.

Schofield and the special teams unit also played a big part in Saturday's win. Punter Elijah Gorman kicked three balls for a combined 131 yards (43.7 yards per punt). Seth Adams averaged 57 yards per kick on three kickoffs, and hit one 79 yards in the first half to help SIU keep the lead. An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after

Williams' 18-yard touchdown run in the first half made Adams kick off from his own 20. He belted one to the UNI 1-yard line, and Whelpley and Lem Wash were able to tackle Ayden Price at the 19. The Panthers eventually punted.

Hill, one of the winningest quarterbacks in school history, appreciated the sum of his squad's efforts.

"Fiegs' pick right before the half. That could be the difference in the game right there. We get three," Hill said. "We tried a fake field goal. It didn't work, but then all of a sudden the guys put their heads down and create points for us on defense. You want individual performances to lead to a win. In a loss they don't feel as good."

SIU is off until taking on Indiana State on the road on Nov. 7.