http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2007/11/18/sports/local/doc473fcc9c0e01b636732285.txt Panthers polish off Gateway's first 11-0 regular season Northern Iowa's 2007 football team truly stands alone.
With nearly 16,000 fans in the UNI-Dome Saturday night, the top-ranked Panthers wrote the final paragraph of the most powerful regular-season story that's ever been told at a school with a long and storied gridiron tradition. Eleven times since Aug. 30, UNI has pulled on the game-day pads. Eleven times, the Panthers have walked off the field victorious. Saturday's 48-10 rout of Southern Utah provided the exclamation point.
"All those (championship) banners out there (in the UNI-Dome) with all those teams, there's a lot of teams on there," said head coach Mark Farley. "None of them went 11-0.
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In fact, UNI became the first Gateway Conference team to complete an 11-0 regular season on a night when the Panthers recognized their 16 seniors before the game.
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Later, as the final seconds ticked away, the home crowd started a chant of "U-N-I, U-N-I." Most stayed to the end, and they broke out in a thunderous ovation when public address announcer Bob Justis recognized the 11-0 achievement.
During the postgame press conference, Sanders was asked what it is that makes this Panther team special. "The work that we put in during the summer," he began. "We have great team chemistry. We've got a lot of unselfish players out there. Our coaching staff is great. They've prepared us for each game very well. We've been fortunate enough to stay healthy, and we've believed we could win every game.
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2100 students whose fall break started Friday afternoon stayed for the game and although the Dome wasn't as loud as homecoming we did keep the noise level elevated! I have to say So. Utah's fans had class - they clapped when the UNI fight song was played and stood at the end of the game. Had to be a long game for them (and I'm sure a long drive home).
(On a side note the DAMN U of M Grizzlies beat Montana State which kept the Griz undefeated - that is actually good for UNI according to my husband and my father who were trying to explaing to me about $bidding$ for the game and how we'd rather play out here than out there.....whatever....I still hate the Griz x()
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GO PANTHERS!!!! :bounce:
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