N. Iowa knocks off Salukis for Gateway's playoff bid

ASSOCIATED PRESS
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Tom Petrie passed for 422 yards and three touchdowns, including a 2-yarder to Marlus Mays with 25 seconds remaining that gave Northern Iowa a 43-40 victory over Southern Illinois Saturday night.
Northern Iowa (9-2, 6-1 Gateway Conference) rallied from a 40-28 deficit in the final 61/2 minutes to hand Southern Illinois its first loss and claim the Gateway Conference's automatic berth in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. Southern Illinois (10-1, 6-1) is expected to receive an at-large bid to the playoffs.
Petrie completed 28-of-40 passes with no interceptions and also caught a touchdown pass. He led scoring drives of 98 and 84 yards to get the Panthers back into the game, then took them 53 yards in 11 plays for the winning score.
Southern Illinois' Brent Little returned the ensuing kickoff 35 yards to the 50 and Joel Sambursky's 17-yard pass to Little put the ball at the UNI 33 with seven seconds remaing. But Craig Coffin's 50-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right.
Sambursky was 17-of-25 for 258 yards, including TD passes of 50 yards to Brandon Robinson and 30 yards to Little to help Southern Illinois build a 28-7 halftime lead.
W. Illinois 63, SW Missouri St. 42
MACOMB, Ill. -- Travis Glasford ran for four touchdowns and 230 yards rushing on 29 carries for Western Illinois (8-3, 5-2 Gateway).
Russ Michna gained 53 yards on seven carries while passing for 314 yards and three touchdowns for the Leathernecks. Michna completed 20-of-28 pass attempts, and was intercepted once. Matt Yellin also rushed for a touchdown for Western Illinois, and Reggie Gray caught six passes for 109 yards.
For Southwest Missouri State (4-7, 1-6), A.J. Porter threw for 347 yards and five touchdowns. Kaya Farris caught eight passes for 153 yards and Brandon Taylor had 10 catches for 85 yards. Cody Pratt also ran for 89 yards on 20 carries.
Illinois State 38, Indiana State 3
NORMAL, Ill. -- Sha-Ron Edwards ran for two touchdowns to lead Illinois State.
Leading 10-3 at the half, Illinois State (6-6, 3-4 Gateway) pulled away with touchdown runs of 2 and 22 yards by Edwards. Andrew Papoccia scored on an 18-yard fumble recovery with 25 seconds left in the third quarter. Quarterback Mike Souza, who was 17-of-24 for 251 yards, connected with Mike Larson for a 29-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to close the scoring.
Edwards finished with had 199 yards on 33 carries.
Kris Karagory ran for 132 yards on 23 carries for Indiana State (3-9, 0-7).