On a Saturday afternoon when special teams were not particularly special, kicker David Wasielewski sent the Northwestern faithful home happy, though emotionally drained, when his 47-yard field goal gave the Wildcats a breathtaking 27-26 victory over Michigan State on the last play of the game at Ryan Field.
It was the first game-winning field goal on the last play for Northwestern since 1985, when John Duvic booted a 42-yarder in a 17-14 victory at Wisconsin.
“There are big kicks and there are big kicks, but that’s about as big as they get,” Northwestern coach Randy Walker said of Wasielewski’s clutch effort. “That wasn’t a 3-footer for par. That was big-time.”
The Big Ten opener for both teams featured punt-return and kick-return touchdowns by MSU and seven missed kicks, five of them by the Spartans. David Schaefer misfired on field-goal tries from 46, 40 and 34 yards. Teammate Michael Servis shanked an extra-point try, and Schaefer had another point-after attempt blocked by Napoleon Harris after a penalty made it a 35-yard kick.
Wasielewski, a junior who sat out last season after transferring from Florida, had room to spare on his game-winner.
“I was nervous until [holder] J.J. Standring looked at me on the sideline and said, `You know you’ve done this a million times. Just smile and have fun,'” Wasielewski recalled. “Right after that I had a good feeling about everything. Once I hit it, I felt it and I knew it was a good kick.”
Wasielewski also converted a 44-yard attempt in the second quarter but was wide left on a 22-yarder in the third quarter and just short on a 50-yarder that hit the crossbar.
“The first one I completely shanked it,” he said. “The second one I just got a little under. I’m just glad coach Walker had the confidence in me to allow me to take the [winning] kick.”
Herb Haygood had returned a kickoff 84 yards for a 26-24 Michigan State lead with 18 seconds left. Walker blamed himself for not ordering a squib kick in that situation, diminishing the chances of a runback.
But MSU’s extra-point kick, after a 15-yard excessive-celebration penalty, was blocked, and Northwestern made the most of its last chance. Zak Kustok connected with Jon Schweighardt on a 54-yard pass to bring Northwestern to the MSU 33 with eight seconds left.
After a timeout Kustok ran for 3 yards before calling another timeout with five seconds left. Wasielewski came onto the field to boot the winner.
“David is becoming a real money kicker,” Northwestern tackle Jeff Roehl said. “He got some leg on those kicks. We all had faith that he would get it far enough. We were just hoping that it would be on line. He did an excellent job of putting it through.”
The Wildcats are 3-0 for the first time since 1962.
“Every time we have the ball last and a chance to win, I like our chances,” Walker said.
