EVANSTON, Ill. (October 7, 2023) - Howard University played yet another outstanding defensive game and the offense rode the effort of sophomore standout Eden James (Port St. Lucie, Fla.) in the second half, but in the end, the football team would come up short, 23-20, to Big Ten opponent Northwestern in a nonconference game before 22,160 at Ryan Field. Saturday's showdown was the first meeting between the schools and homecoming for the Wildcats.
 
The Bison (2-3) got off to a slow start, allowing Northwestern to march 75 yards on six plays during its second possession to take a 7-0 lead at the 11:31 mark.
 
The Howard defense, which stood tall all day, settled in and shut down the Northwestern offense, coming up with several negative plays.
 
The Wildcats (3-3) took advantage of a Bison miscue, recording a safety a little less than four minutes later when Howard graduate quarterback Quinton Williams (Upper Marlboro, Md.) was called for intentional grounding in the end zone; thus, resulting into a 9-0 Northwestern lead. From there, it became a battle of the defenses.
 
On the Bison's most encouraging drive of the half, James began to find some daylight and helped his team move down to its deepest penetration of the game.
 
Howard was within scoring position with the ball at the Wildcats' 25-yard line. But on 4^th-and-2 at the Northwestern 20, James was tackled for a three-yard loss, turning the ball over on downs.
 
The Wildcats took advantage as they put together a 14-play drive that covered 77 yards and used 5:31 off the clock to take a 16-0 lead to the locker room.
 
Howard came out of the locker room with a new energy and proceeded to put together a 74-yard drive that took 17 plays and used almost eight minutes off the clock. Reserve redshirt freshman quarterback Ja'Shawn Scroggins (Las Vegas) capped off the drive with a one-yard plunge to make it 16-7 with 7:05 on the clock.
 
The Wildcats answered, however, five minutes later on a 35-yard hookup between Brendan Sullivan to Calvin Johnson, 23-7.
 
The Bison again turned to its defense and it set up their next scoring opportunity when James burst off the right side and raced 64 yards for the touchdown to get Howard to within 23-13 with 7:40 left in the fourth quarter.
 
The defense again gave the offense an opportunity and they capitalized on a one-yard dive by senior running back Jarett Hunter (Mineral, Va.), following an eight-play, 63-yard drive, making the score 23-20 with 2:32 remaining in the fourth quarter.
 
"The team had a never-say-die attitude," proclaimed Howard Head Coach Larry Scott. "It is hard to instill things into a football team like keep swinging, fighting and never give up. I was proud of the way they persevered. We came up a little short in the end and ran out of time and could not overcome some of the early mistakes."
 
Coach Scott was alluding to some penalties and miscues that plagued his team. Howard had three personal fouls and eight total penalties, including an illegal motion penalty on a key third down conversion that hurt them.
 
"It comes down to discipline," he declared. "I told them that we had to play a clean game and not do things to hurt ourselves. When you come into Big Ten territory and play a Big Ten team, you have to be sound in what you do and can't afford to make those kinds of mistakes."
 
Howard tried an onside kick but Northwestern recovered and ran out the clock.
 
Northwestern Interim Head Coach David Braun had talked all week about not getting caught up in the talk about the difference in the two divisions (Howard in the FCS and Northwestern in the upper level FBS).
 
"Howard is a very tough football team," Braun stated. "They are well coached and they showed a lot of resilience out there today. We are just glad that we were able to come away with a victory."
 
James had his best day as a collegian, rushing for a career-high 177 on 21 carries and catching three passes for 36 yards. Williams completed 18-of-30 for 169 yards and continued to spread the ball to nine different receivers.
 
"We understood the situation of being behind in the first half, so we had to make some adjustments and clean up some things in the second half," said James, who has over 300 yards on the season despite missing two games. "We put a lot more emphasis on the little things in terms of execution and things began to click for us."
 
The Bison rushed for 130 yards in the second half and finished with 162 for almost five yards per attempt.
 
"We made the plays and they showed us some looks that we had not seen," Scott added. "We mixed up some things but stayed with our plan and were able to execute. It allowed us to find some seams in the run game."
 
Junior wide receiver Richie Ilarraza (Clearwater, Fla.) had his best day of the season, grabbing seven catches for 65 yards.
 
On defense, it was a team effort as senior defensive back Ray Williams (Detroit), junior linebacker Terrance Hollon (Cleveland) and senior defensive back Carson Hinton (Detroit) all collected eight tackles. Hinton recorded a career-high two tackles for losses.
 
"We had communication and played physical and tough," said Hinton, who is having his best season. "We are getting better each game."
 
NEXT UP: Howard travels to Cambridge, Mass., to take on Harvard Saturday (Oct. 14) at 1 p.m.
 
For more information, visit the Bison Athletics website at www.HUBison.com.