DETROIT – Mathew Sims kicked a 33-yard field goal as time expired to rally Northern Illinois from a 20-point halftime deficit past Ohio, 23-20, in the Mid-American Conference Championship Game at Ford Field on Friday night.

The Bobcats (9-4) dominated the first half, but the Huskies flipped the script in the second half to win their first MAC title since 1983 and add another year to Ohio’s drought that has lasted since 1968.

“We had plenty of chances,” Ohio coach Frank Solich said. “We just did not play well enough with those chances to make it work for us in the second half.”

The high-powered offense of Northern Illinois was held scoreless for nearly 39 minutes, in part because of four turnovers, but league MVP Chandler Harnish brought his team’s offense to life. The Huskies, who were held to 92 yards before the break, totaled 313 yards after, including 195 yards in the fourth quarter alone.

Harnish, who finished the night 16 of 26 passing for 250 yards, threw the first of his three touchdown passes on a 39-yard completion to Nathan Palmer with 6:19 remaining in the third quarter.

Ohio kicker Matt Weller, who had been perfect on all of his attempts inside of 40 yards, missed a 36-yard attempt wide right with 13:22 left in the game, one play after LaVon Brazill dropped what would have been a touchdown pass.

Still up by 13, the Bobcats had a chance to score again on their next possession, but Tyler Tettleton was picked off for the third time in the game. That set up a 32-yard Harnish touchdown pass to Martel Moore with 7:36 to go. Sims, though, missed the extra point, making it 20-13.

An offsides call against the Huskies on a Bobcats’ fourth down allowed more time to come off the clock, but Ohio was stopped just short of midfield and Paul Hershey shanked a punt, giving Northern Illinois possession at its own 43-yard line at the 4:36 mark.

On a third-and-7 play, Harnish connected with Palmer from 22 yards out to knot the game at 20 with 2:52 to go.

A kick return of 33 yards by Ryan Clark to the Bobcats’ 35-yard line gave them decent field position, but that was ruined on the first play from scrimmage when the snap got past Tettleton for a loss of 12 yards. Ohio could not recover and had to punt again, with Northern Illinois taking over possession of the ball with 1:18 remaining at its own 36-yard line.

A 27-yard completion to Perez Ashford along the left sideline put the Huskies inside their opponents’ 40-yard line. After a three-yard Jasmin Hopkins run, Moore made a catch for a gain of 15 yards to easily put the Huskies in field goal range.

Hopkins centered the ball with a 3-yard run, and despite Ohio calling two timeouts to try to ice him, he nailed the game-winner.

“I let my team down (with the missed extra point) and I knew I couldn’t let them down twice in a row,” Sims said.

With that, Northern Illinois completed the biggest comeback in its football history.

“It was a team effort,” said Palmer, who was named his team’s MVP with four catches for 115 yards. “We all set in there and halftime and we had a heart to heart. Some of the guys stepped up and said some things. I knew I had to step up and make some plays.”

With 302 yards of offense in the first half and a 15-4 advantage in first downs, Ohio easily could have held a lead of more than 20-0.

Ohio’s first play from scrimmage was good for 44 yards on a completion to Brazill, but Tettleton was picked off in the end zone on a third down play.

Noah Keller, named his team’s MVP with 13 tackles, picked off Harnish to give the Bobcats a short field, but Ohio had to settle for a 30-yard Weller field goal.

After forcing a three-and-out, the Bobcats increased their lead to 10-0 on a double-reverse pass from Phil Bates to Donte Foster from 24 yards out.

Weller kicked another shot field goal on Ohio’s next possession, a 21-yarder after Ohio could not punch it in the end zone after a Donte Harden 19-yard rush to the 5-yard line set up first-and-goal.

Tommylee Lewis fumbled the ensuing kickoff return, but Ohio failed to take advantage when Tettleton was picked off along the right sideline.

Northern Illinois seemed to be headed toward its first points on its next drive. However, on second-and-goal from the Ohio 3, Harnish got pressured by Corey Hasting and Noah Keller, who forced the ball out and Keller recovered.

The Bobcats’ lead grew to 20-0 on an 18-yard Tettleton touchdown run with 2:35 left before the half.

Ohio almost forced one more turnover before halftime when Palmer fumbled a handoff, but Harnish was able to steal the ball away at his team’s 30-yard line.

It might have been the best play made during an usually bad first half by Harnish.

“This is where our senior class would leave our legacy,” Harnish said. “Why not go out the hard way? All I can do is laugh. We played so terribly. I played so terribly. I played so fast, I was trying to do too much. … I didn’t want to go out the way I played in the first half.”

Right away in the second half, though, the Huskies turned over the ball with another fumble as Keller knocked the ball out of Jamison Wells’ hands and Josh Kristoff came up with the loose ball. Hasting was called for a personal foul and ejected from the game for allegedly swinging at a Northern Illinois player after the play.

Instead of taking over possession across midfield, Ohio took over the ball at its own 38-yard line, ended up punting, and from there Northern Illinois began its comeback.

“There’s no one connected with our program that’s not majorly disappointed,” Solich said. “As I look at the game itself, all three phases of it in the second half had a little bit of a collapse. Special teams, there were some things on special teams that really hurt us, there were some big plays that we gave up on defense in the second half that hurt us, there were some offensive problems, in terms of gaining first downs when we needed to gain them.”

After graduating nine starters from last year’s defense, Northern Illinois had struggled in that phase early in the season and in the first half against Ohio. But it held the Bobcats to just 70 yards after halftime.

“I can’t even say how proud I am,” Northern Illinois defensive lineman Sean Progar said. “It goes to everybody. It’s the whole defense, the coaching staff, they kept believing in us and we just fought the whole season.”

A big part of slowing Ohio was shutting down Brazill. After gaining 118 yards on seven catches in the first half, he had just one catch for six yards in the second half.

Tettleton finished 18 of 31 for 218 yards passing and rushed 18 times for 51 yards. Harden had 19 rushing attempts for 73 yards.

The Bobcats suffered a loss in the MAC Championship Game two years ago, and it was hard to take another one, especially when victory seemed in grasp, Keller said.

“It’s hard being back in the same room with the same thing again,” he said. “It’s difficult.”

Harnish, who had rushed for more than 1,300 yards on the season, was limited to 31 on 13 attempts. Hopkins carried 11 times for 60 yards for the Huskies.

Northern Illinois lost to Miami in last season’s MAC Championship Game, but was able to erase some of its bad memories with its phenomenal second half.

“There was no flinch,” Northern Illinois coach Dave Doeren said. “They believed in us. We just didn’t play well in the first half. We weren’t who we were.”

Ohio finished with more first downs, 21-19, but Northern Illinois totaled more yards, 405-372.

“They started to play defensive football very well and we did not execute in the second half and through a share of the game and we really did not make the kind of plays we were making in the second half,” Solich said. “It was a combination of them playing good football and a combination of us not playing good football.”

Now the Bobcats will have to await their bowl game selection, their third straight, likely to be announced Sunday. That game will give Ohio a chance to accomplish at least one of its goals, winning its first-ever postseason game.

“I like the fact that our kids are good athletes,” Solich said. “I like the fact that they play tremendously hard. I like the fact that we win a lot of football games. We need to win a conference championship. We need to win a bowl game. Those are things that we need to do to move our football program forward another step. We’ll have to wait on that.”