In a weekend of dramatic DII college games, one of the most dramatic was Northern Michigan’s 27-24 overtime defeat of Illinois State.

For NMU, it was a breakthrough game as it put the Moosemen in with an excellent chance of making the national playoffs. This from a team that was 1-5 last season.

“We had good players,” said NMU’s Jacob Kaiser. “I thought we had the chance to be better. But to go from 1-5 to 5-1 in the conference was kind of a shock.”

Their only WIIL loss this year has been to Wisconsin-Whitewater, as the mix of athletes new to the game and talent from some of the top Michigan high school programs has come together in a year.

“Our physicality has been a big factor,” said Kaiser. “Our forwards aren’t afraid to hit. We’ve got a backline that is very good. But overall, it’s just the fact that we started listening to our coaches and it started to work for us.”

More work on passing skills, getting players into rucks, it all started to come together. As forwards learned to pass better, the backs started to hit the rucks more.

“Our record shows what a different in hustle and attitude can make,” said Kaiser.

And so to the quarterfinal against Illinois State. ISU is a huge, powerful team and with rain expected for the game it looked to be a forwards game. When game time rolled around, though, it wasn’t raining, and that made for good news for the NMU backs.

“They had some very big boys and they could hit,” said Kaiser. “Their pack was very good and I think both teams did a really good job of playing rugby. It was very physical, but not chippy.”

“I thought it was an incredible example of a classic old-school rugby game,” added No. 8 Rory McRae. “They appeared to have the much greater size advantage over us, but we worked together as a team to bring them down. There was always a gentlemanly-like atmosphere throughout the game with no spiteful fights or unnecessary fighting.

“As a team we were able to work together to move the ball around the field, and keep it out of their big guy's hands, while implementing plays and strategies to get the ball past their back line.”

NMU was close to scoring out wide a couple of times only to see ISU cover defenders race in to stop it.

“That shows the hustle of the Illinois State guys,” said Kaiser. “They worked hard to keep the game close.”

And it was, 24-24 at full time. It came down to overtime, and both teams, exhausted, slammed into each other hoping for a breakthrough. It came, finally, right at the end of the overtime period. Northern Michigan pressured into the ISU half, and close to the 22 meter line. They got a penalty, and Nate Vertel put the kick over.

There was still time, but from the restart, flanker Pat Bailey raced in, caught the ball, and the ball was tarn into tough to end the game.

“As a team we played well,” said Kaiser. “We were able to follow our game plan, and that was the key.”

McRae was outstanding; an experienced loose forward he has been playing rugby from the youth ranks and his experience shows. Bailey made some key runs, while Rudy Zelinski was at the heart of challenge ISU’s pack with his running. Matt Hughes was another factor for the Moosemen, as a small fullback he was required to bring down some much bigger players who broke through, and he didn’t back down.

It’s been an impressive turnaround for Northern Michigan, and now they have two more big challenges. Lindenwood-Belleville stands in their way on Saturday, and then either Wisconsin-Whitewater or Northern Iowa. One victory this coming weekend puts a team that was 1-5 a year ago into the national playoffs.