Sept. 8, 2007

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EVANSTON, Ill. -- With 72 seconds left and victory 80 yards away, C.J. Bachér saw what he was looking for, what Northwestern needed Saturday.

"At that point everyone was completely focused. I looked in the huddle, I could see it in their eyes. We felt we'd score and we did," Bachér said.

Bachér led the Wildcats on six-play drive, twice running for first downs, and then drilled a 13-yard TD pass to a diving Ross Lane with 21 seconds left to send Northwestern past Nevada, 36-31.

"We work on the two-minute drill all the time," Bachér said. "I was trying to get extra yards ... I was running as hard as I could."

Bachér set up the game-winning score with scrambles of 20 and 15 yards to the Nevada 13. He threw incomplete before firing the ball to Lane who went down for a scooping catch with Nevada's Devon Walker on top of him. The play was reviewed and the call on the field upheld.

"I was positive I caught the ball," said Lane, who was seen on the sidelines showing how he got underneath it. Still the wait was a big nerve-racking until the ruling came down that the call on the field -- a TD -- stood. "We were ready to go back out ... if we had to," Lane added.

They didn't and Northwestern tacked on two points on the final play when Kevin Mims sacked Nevada quarterback Nick Graziano in the end zone.

It was a huge win for the Wildcats, who opened last week with a 27-0 shutout of Northeastern. For Nevada (0-2), it was a crushing loss after losing 52-10 at Nebraska last Saturday.

Nevada took a 24-10 halftime lead when Graziano hit Kyle Sammons for a 48-yard TD on the final play of the half.

"This one is harder by far. We had the game," Nevada defensive back Paul Pratt said. "We let them back in."

After Northwestern (2-0) rallied to go up 27-24 lead on a 16-yard Bacher TD pass to third string running back Omar Conteh early in the fourth quarter, Nevada came back and grabbed a 31-27 lead when Luke Lippincott ran 27 yards for a TD with 3:38 left.

Northwestern got the ball back twice. The Wildcats were stacked up on a fourth-and-1 the first time.

Given another chance after a personal foul penalty on the Wolf Pack helped keep Nevada from running out the clock, Bachér led a final drive. He hit a 23-yard pass to Kim Thompson, carried twice himself and then found Lane.

"When you are a minute away from winning the ball game, you have to win it. You can't let a team drive 80 yards," Nevada coach Chris Ault said.

"He (Bachér) just scrambled and made plays," Nevada linebacker Ezra Butler said. "He made plays with his legs and they were able to score at the end."

Reggie McPherson's interception and 39-yard return and a personal foul penalty gave Northwestern a first down at the Nevada 13 early in the second half, but all the Wildcats could muster was a field goal by Amado Villarreal that made it 24-13.

With Northwestern's leading rusher Tyrell Sutton sidelined after injuring his ankle in the second quarter, backup Brandon Roberson responded by breaking off a 76-yard run to the Nevada 13. Bacher's 12-yard scramble set up Roberson's 1-yard TD, cutting the lead to 24-20.

Graziano, in his second career start, gave the Wolf Pack a big halftime lead on the final play. He avoided a rush, stepped outside the pocket and rolling left hit a wide open Sammons, who stepped into the end zone.

Brandon Fragger had a 14-yard TD run to tie the game for Nevada, capping an 85-yard drive on the Wolf Pack's first possession.

Northwestern had taken the opening kickoff and behind six completions from Bacher moved in for the score with Tonjua Jones grabbing a 1-yard scoring pass, but for the rest of the half the Wildcats were unable to find the end zone.

Graziano had completions of 19 and 14 yards to Mike McCoy and then on the fourth play of the second quarter threaded a nice throw to tight end Adam Bishop for a 24-yard TD and a 14-7 lead.

Sutton returned late in the half for one play and took a 32-yard swing pass from Bacher, helping set up a 46-yard field goal by Villarreal with 47 seconds left.

Sutton only carried three times for 14 yards and will be re-evaluated Sunday.

Roberson finished with 128 yards on 13 carries. Lippincott had 140 yards rushing on 28 carries for Nevada.

Graziano completed 22-of-36 passes for 337 yards after completing only 8-of-24 for 109 against Nebraska. Bachér was 20-of-45 for 227 yards and ran for another 60, giving him a career-best 287 yards of total offense.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)

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