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IOWA CITY — Kamari Moulton could not be stopped and the Iowa defense suffocated the Northern Illinois defense in route to a 40-0 win in Saturday’s season opener. The No. 22 Hawkeyes (1-0, 0-0 Big Ten) got 183 yards and two touchdowns from Moulton on 11 attempts while the Huskies (0-1, 0-0 Mountain West) mustered just 120 yards, including just seven on the ground. “Pleased about the outcome and then certainly proud of the team,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “I think they really did a good job today. Certainly showed up and played hard and they competed” First Quarter | 14:21 | Second-and-3 | Iowa 32 Iowa wasted little time getting its offense rolling. After a seven-yard gain on the game’s first play from scrimmage, the Hawkeyes put the ball in the hands of it’s veteran running back. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida native found the whole cut open by the offensive line and dashed for a gain of 23. People are also reading… The run, which nearly broke for a bigger play, energized a home crowd ready for reason to celebrate in the hot, humid conditions and ignited the offense. Iowa found the end zone later in the drive — the first of three straight touchdown drives to start the game — to take a 6-0 lead. First Quarter | 6:51 | First-and-10 | 50 The offense picked up right where it left off on the first drive as quarterback Hank Brown found DJ Vonnahme for a 16-yard gain on the first play of the drive. Then, on the second play from midfield, Moulton took over the game yet again. Brown got the ball to Moulton on a quick pitch, the offensive line opened a gaping hole in the center of the field and Moulton raced virtually untouched for the 50-yard touchdown and a 13-0 Iowa lead. “The o-line was working for me today, man,” Moulton said. “Them boys had a lot grit today, even though it was a hot one out there to start the game, but them boys showed up and led me to be able to do what I could do.” With 84 yards and a touchdown on his first four attempts, Moulton already managed a more productive outing than five of his games last season, but he was far from done. First Quarter | 4:17 | First-and-10 | NIU 37 Just over two minutes later, Moulton found the end zone again. A run of 11 yards and a completion of 16 from Brown to Reece Vander Zee moved the ball into NIU territory to the 37-yard line. Moulton took a handoff right on first down and found his hole then a cutback lane to the left before racing into the end zone without a Huskie defender managing to get a hand on him. The holes which sprung his myriad long runs on Saturday came as no surprise to Moulton. “They (the offensive line) work very hard,” Moulton said. “Like I said, all fall camp and spring football, they’re just a very tight knit group and they run to work and they want to work. They have a lot of energy for what they do and they love what they do. So, to be able to just come out there and just finish the run for them boys is a good experience. “It’s very motivating. When I see something like that, I feel like I have to score it. I’m scoring really for the o-line because they did their job so now I have to do mine.” Second Quarter | 11:47 | Third-and-11 | NIU 19 If Moulton’s early double dip got NIU shaky on its feet, Iowa’s defense provided the knock out punch early in the second quarter. Facing a third-and-11 from its own 19, NIU looked to the air to move the chains. Instead, Elon transfer Khamari Brown got home for a sack, with help from linebacker Preston Ries to bring up fourth down and force NIU to punt from it’s own 10-yard line. Jeremy Hecklinski connected with Xavier Williams on a screen pass on the seventh play of the ensuing Iowa drive for an eight-yard touchdown to swell the lead to 27-0 and put things firmly out of reach before halftime. Up Next: Iowa hosts Iowa State next Saturday under the lights at 6:30 p.m. Broadcast coverage of the game will be provided by NBC and the Hawkeye Radio Network. Ethan Petrik is a University of Iowa beat writer for the Lee Enterprises network. Follow him on X or send him an email at ethan.petrik@wcfcourier.com.