"Complimentary football." It is one of Northern Illinois University head coach Thomas Hammock's favorite phrases as he describes what it takes to win a football game.

On Saturday in the 10th Annual Camellia Bowl in the historic Cramton Bowl, that is exactly what Hammock's 2023 Huskies displayed to earn a 21-19 win over Arkansas State – and the program's first bowl win since a 38-20 win over Arkansas State in Mobile, Alabama following the 2011 season.

"For these guys to win a game and walk off the field as champions is everything for our seniors, is everything for the guys coming back. We played complimentary football in all three phases," Hammock said. "The offense played really well in the first half; we kind of stalled in the second half. The defense really picked it up, had three and out stops, and we stopped them on fourth down."

After NIU and Arkansas State combined for the highest scoring first half in Camellia Bowl history, with the Huskies taking a 21-13 halftime lead, a defensive struggle broke out. Neither team scored again until Arkansas State made it a two-point game with 1:14 left to play on a 13-yard pass from quarterback Jaylen Raynor to Corey Rucker.

Raynor's two-point conversion pass to Reagan Ealy went over his head, preserving NIU's two-point lead. An offsides penalty on the Red Wolves' first onside kick attempt negated an ASU recovery and the Huskies' Grayson Barnes recovered the next attempt and allowed NIU to run out the clock for the win.

NIU quarterback Rocky Lombardi earned the Bart Starr MVP Award after finishing 18-of-29 passing for 200 yards. He connected with Barnes, who got a foot down in the back of the end zone, on the Huskies' first touchdown, and ran for a six-yard score to finish NIU's next drive and give the Huskies a 13-7 first quarter lead after kicker Kanon Woodill's PAT.

The Huskies' final touchdown came on one of the biggest – and most surprising – plays of the day. On its first drive of the second quarter, NIU drove from its 13 to the ASU 32-yard line with an Antario Brown 27-yard rush to start the drive. After Lombardi's third down pass to Trayvon Rudolph fell incomplete, Hammock brought on the field goal team from the ASU 32-yard line for an apparent 49-yard attempt.

Instead, holder Tom Foley got the ball and flipped it to Woodill, who had started running and the kicker had a an open lane all the way to the end zone to record the Huskies' first touchdown via a fake field goal since the late Mat Sims scored on a seven-yard run on the fake versus Central Michigan in 2012. It was also the first fake field goal for a score in Camellia Bowl history.

"We felt like it was a great opportunity to get the first down, then when they overloaded it, I said, this has a chance to be a touchdown," Hammock said. "He did a great job and scored – maybe the only touchdown in his life. What a great opportunity, the guys executed it perfectly and that was probably the game-winning play and what turned out to be our last touchdown."

Arkansas State kicker Dominic Zvada made a pair of field goals in the second quarter – from 28 and 45 yards – the last coming as the half ended.

The teams traded punts on the first five drives of the third quarter. On the Huskies' third possession of the period, Lombardi hit Barnes – who caught a career high five passes for 105 yards in the game – for 35 yards to the ASU 12 and Brown ran for six yards to the six. Lombardi's third down pass went incomplete and Woodill's 23-yard attempt hit the right upright.

The fourth quarter brought more of the same before ASU's drive with 3:52 left that ended with the Rucker score.

The Huskies owned the time of possession edge as they held on to the ball for 40:25 to Arkansas State's 19:35, including a 12:02-2:58 first quarter. NIU also converted 7-of-16 third down conversions and was two-of-two on fourth downs in the game.

Brown ran for 132 yards on 25 carries for his fifth 100-yard game of the season. Defensively, Jaden Dolphin, DaRon Gilbert and Ray Thomas each collected six tackles. JaVaughn Byrd had a first quarter interception to stop an ASU drive and a tackle for loss. NIU held ASU quarterback Raynor to 49 yards rushing on 13 carries.

The Huskies finished the year 7-6 and won six of their final eight games, including the bowl win.