Wildcats rush for only 18, lose 7th straight

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Spencer Petras threw for a touchdown and ran for another, and Drew Stevens kicked four field goals as Iowa defeated Northwestern 33-13 on Saturday.

The Hawkeyes (4-4, 2-3 Big Ten) snapped a three-game losing streak with their highest point total of the season.

“No question this was our best offensive performance,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said.

Added tight end Sam LaPorta: “I was running off the field a lot of times today with a smile on my face.”

Petras was 21-for-30 for 220 yards. He had a 1-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Luke Lachey late in the second quarter.

“For the most part, I thought it was a pretty good performance,” Petras said.

Petras, in his third season as Iowa’s starter, was replaced by Alex Padilla in the second half of last weeks’ 54-10 loss at Ohio State. The two were listed as co-No. 1s on this week’s depth chart, but Petras got the start. He then led the Hawkeyes to points on all four of their first-half possessions for a 20-0 halftime lead.

“It’s just like life,” Petras said. “You don’t reset everything and abandon everything that got you to the point where you’re at. You just go back to work. So yeah, it felt good to be back out there.”

Said Ferentz: “I’m really happy for him. When we’re not winning, that’s rough for everybody. He’s been a little bit of a magnet for criticism. That’s part of playing the position, that’s part of the game. I think we all believed in him.”

Petras said he and Padilla had taken an equal number of snaps during practices on Monday and Tuesday.

“By Wednesday, I had a pretty good idea (about starting),” Petras said. “By Friday I knew.”

Petras completed passes to eight receivers and was sacked once.

“Spence was doing his job today, getting the ball to the guys who were open,” said LaPorta, who led the Hawkeyes with five catches for 53 yards.

Stevens had field goals of 29 and 24 yards in the first half, then added a 54-yarder in the third quarter. His 25-yarder in the fourth made it 26-7.

Iowa’s Arland Bruce IV added a 23-yard touchdown run with 5:13 left.

“Obviously they played one of their cleanest games of the season,” Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. “Quarterback-wise, that was probably his best game of the year.”

Said Petras: “You can’t get down for too long. You’ve got to push through, and today we pushed through.”

Northwestern (1-7, 1-4), which has lost seven straight, was held to 177 total yards, with only 18 rushing yards on 37 attempts. The Wildcats got a 1-yard touchdown pass from Brendan Sullivan to Duke Olges in the third quarter and a 7-yard touchdown pass from Sullivan to Raymond Niro III on the final play of the game.

Sullivan, a sophomore, threw for 159 yards and was sacked seven times in his second career start.

“He’ll learn from this, grow and get better,” Fitzgerald said.