Purdue rolls in second half to top Northwestern at Wrigley

CHICAGO (AP) — Aidan O’Connell threw three touchdown passes to Milton Wright on Saturday to lead Purdue to a 32-14 victory over Northwestern at Wrigley Field.

O’Connell was 29 for 39 for 423 yards and Wright had 213 yards on eight catches — both career highs — to help the Boilermakers (7-4, 5-3 Big Ten) erase memories of last weekend’s 59-31 drubbing at Ohio State.

Evan Hull had 96 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries as the Wildcats (3-8, 1-7) dropped their fifth straight.

The Boilermakers never trailed and scored touchdowns on their first two possessions of the second half to give themselves some breathing room. Wright, who’d never caught more than one touchdown before Saturday, had scoring catches of 17 and 45 yards in the third quarter to cap his best game.

Up 6-0 midway through the second quarter, O’Connell found a streaking Wright down the sideline for a 53-yard touchdown pass. Northwestern answered with a long touchdown drive in the final 1:45 to go to intermission down 13-7.

Mitchell Fineran kicked four field goals for the Boilermakers, who ended their road season 4-2. The two losses were at Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Andrew Marty was 10 for 14 for 93 yards and a touchdown for Northwestern, which played its home finale at the famed home of the Chicago Cubs.

JUST LIKE THEY DREW IT UP

Purdue’s Chris Van Eekeren lost his footing as he made contact with the second-half kickoff and sent the ball dribbling into the middle of the field. Things still went the Boilermakers’ way: Purdue recovered the unintentional onside kick and turned the possession into its second touchdown of the day.

STEALING SIGNS?

The south end of the field ran along the right-field line of the ballpark but a few stretches of the warning track were the only patches of dirt. Both the mound and...

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