Freshman Kaleb Johnson rushed for a career-high 103 yards with two touchdowns to lead Iowa to a 27-0 win over visiting Nevada in a game that extended into Sunday morning at Iowa City, Iowa, because of three weather delays.
The game ended at 1:40 a.m. local time.
The contest was suspended due to lightning at 8:43 p.m., with 10:02 remaining in the third quarter and the Hawkeyes leading 17-0. After being cleared to return to the field, another delay was called at 10:08 p.m. The teams resumed at 11:55 p.m., but after one play, they went into a third weather delay.
The game resumed for good at 12:38 a.m.
The scoring output is a season-high for the Hawkeyes, who beat South Dakota State 7-3 in the season opener and lost 10-7 last week to Iowa State.
After having to punt on their first two possessions, the Hawkeyes scored on a 40-yard run by Johnson, the first touchdown of his career, with 4:36 left in the first quarter.
Iowa’s defense forced Nevada to punt five times in the first half and Cooper DeJean intercepted Wolf Pack quarterback Shane Illingworth in the other possession.
The interception gave Iowa the ball at the Nevada 41. Five plays later, Spencer Petras completed a 21-yard touchdown pass to Arland Bruce IV to increase the lead to 14-0 with 23 seconds left in the first quarter.
Petras finished 14-of-26 passing for 175 yards and the score.
Iowa put together an 11-play, 69-yard drive on its next possession that ended with a 43-yard field goal by Drew Stevens.
The Hawkeyes had 197 yards of total offense compared to Nevada’s 64 at halftime. They finished with 337 total yards and Nevada had 151.
After play resumed, Iowa scored the last 10 points on a 33-yard field goal by Stevens with 2:40 left in the third quarter and Johnson’s 55-yard run with 8:22 remaining.
–Field Level Media
