Another wild, multiple overtime Middle Tennessee vs. Western Kentucky game. And another new Hilltopper hero.

WKU kicker Ryan Nuss kicked a 37-yard field goal in the third overtime Friday to lift the Toppers to a 41-38 win at Houchens-Smith Stadium.

The redshirt junior Nuss went wild after the winning kick, sprinting across the field and sliding on the turf as his teammates poured off the sidelines to mob him.

Nuss’ game-winning field goal made WKU (6-5 overall, 4-3 Conference USA) bowl eligible for the seventh straight year. It gave the Hilltoppers an emotional senior night victory and a third straight victory against their archrivals to the south.

Multiple overtimes are nothing new in the series. The teams also went to two extra periods in both the 2011 and ’16 editions of the series and three overtimes in ’14.

Last year’s hero was Deon Yelder, who blocked an MTSU extra point attempt in double OT to set up Anthony “Ace” Wales’ game-winning TD run. This time it was Nuss who enjoyed the winning moment.

Middle Tennessee scored a touchdown in the first overtime on a 2-yard Tavares Thomas TD run. WKU answered with a 5-yard TD pass from Mike White to Nacarius Fant, with a Nuss extra point tying the game at 31.

WKU started double overtime with the ball and scored another TD. This time it was White finding Cameron Echols-Luper on a slant route from 13 yards out.

The Blue Raiders held serve, getting down to the 2-yard line on a defensive pass interference and scoring two plays later on a 3-yard Terelle West TD run. Canon Rooker’s extra point tied the game at 38 and sent it to a third overtime.

The Hilltopper defense finally got a stop in the third overtime, forcing a Rooker 42-yard field goal attempt. It was no good, keeping the score tied at 38-38.

That set the stage for WKU to win the game. Two D’Andre Ferby runs and an incomplete White pass set up WKU with fourth-and-5 from the 20. Nuss, after an icing attempt on an MTSU timeout, calmly kicked the game-winner.

The teams went into overtime Friday following a frantic final 18 minutes of the game. Things had been calm to that point, with the Hilltoppers holding a 7-3 lead.

WKU pushed its lead to 10-3 with 2:35 left in the third quarter on a 28-yard Nuss field goal. Those three points were set up by a 46-yard pass from quarterback White to wide receiver Quin Jernighan, down to the MTSU 16.

The Blue Raiders finally struck for their first touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter. Middle Tennessee quarterback Brent Stockstill lofted a deep pass to the back-left corner of the end zone, and Patrick Smith hauled it in for a 21-yard TD to tie the game 10-10.

WKU then basically handed the Blue Raiders their second touchdown of the game, with Darius Harris returning a lateral 40 yards for a touchdown. Harris picked up the ball – a dropped White-to-Jakairi Moses attempted swing pass – after no Hilltoppers bothered to recover what was a live ball.

Harris’ TD put Middle Tennessee up 17-10 with 14:36 left in the fourth quarter, but was quickly answered by WKU.

White tied the game by hitting wide receiver Kylen Towner on a 66-yard deep pass. Towner, who’d missed the previous two games due to injury, got behind the defense and sped into the end zone, tying things at 17 with 13:50 to play.

White wasn’t done throwing long touchdown passes. His very next completion on WKU’s next offensive series was a 93-yard bomb to wide receiver Lucky Jackson.

The redshirt sophomore Jackson eluded MTSU tacklers and went in to put the Hilltoppers up 24-17 with 9:42 left in the game. The 93-yard pass tied for the third-longest in WKU history.

Middle Tennessee went methodical with its answer. The Blue Raiders marched 75 yards in nine plays, capped by a 2-yard Thomas TD run to tie the game at 24 with 4:51 left.

Neither team was able to score after that, leading to overtime.

White finished the night 39-of-54 through the air for 485 yards with five touchdowns. The senior Fant, a Bowling Green native, caught 14 passes for 101 yards and a TD in the last game he’ll play in his hometown.

Next Up

The Hilltoppers close the 2017 regular season Friday at Florida International. Kickoff from Miami is set for 6 p.m. CST.

The Panthers (6-3, 4-2) are still alive in the C-USA East Division hunt, and play East leader Florida Atlantic (7-3, 6-0) on Saturday.