MOBILE, Alabama — Arkansas State owned the first 14 minutes of Sunday’s GoDaddy.com Bowl but Northern Illinois scored 31 unanswered points and took home a 38-20 win over the Red Wolves.

Northern Illinois (11-3) rallied from a double digit deficit to win for the third time this season. Arkansas State (10-3), coached by interim head coach David Gunn after the departure of new Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, had a nine-game winning streak snapped.

Senior NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish completed 18 of 36 passes for 274 yards and two touchdowns. He left the game in the second quarter after an ankle injury but returned after two offensive series. Martel Moore caught eight passes for 224 yards and a touchdown for the Huskies, who brought a Mid-American Conference championship with them to Sunday’s game.

“Our kids didn’t quit,” Northern Illinois coach David Doeren said. “That was a great team we played tonight. Martel Moore played a great game.”

Arkansas State, the Sun Belt Conference champion, went up 13-0 in the first quarter on two field goals by Brian Davis (32, 36) and a touchdown run by quarterback Ryan Aplin.

Harnish connected with Perez Ashford for a 9-yard touchdown pass with 49 seconds left in the quarter. After Harnish aggravated his ankle injury in the second, Jordan Lynch led the Huskies on a touchdown drive and carried for a 3-yard score with 2:50 to play in the half.

Arkansas State’s Rod Hall muffed an NIU punt, which was recovered by NIU’s Dominique Ware at the Red Wolves’ 43 with 1:54 left in the half. The Huskies drove 43 yards in 10 plays and Jamal Wombol scored from 1-yard as time expired to give NIU a 21-13 lead at the half.

The teams traded intereceptions on the first two possessions of the second half, then Harnish hit Moore for a 43-yard touchdown strike at 13:30 in the third. NIU added a field goal from Matthew Sims and Dechan Durante intercepted Aplin and returned it 36 yards for a touchdown in the fourth.