Purdue rolls in second half to top Northwestern at Wrigley

Aidan O'Connell threw 3 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 8 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.

"Today was my day and I had to execute," Wright said. "(O'Connell) is a great quarterback and I'm happy I could make the plays."

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.

David Bell had 12 receptions for 101 yards and seemed to draw more attention from the Wildcats. It left Wright in frequent mismatches on the left side of the field.

"They were covering David and it left a lot of one-on-one opportunities on that side of the field," O'Connell said. "We had to take advantage of those."

Up 6-0 midway through the second quarter, O'Connell found Wright streaking 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.

"We lost the one-on-one matchups," Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "When we tackled them, we held them to field goals."

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.

Saturday's game was the second football game at the historic ballpark since the NFL's Bears moved to Soldier Field after the 1970 season. The Wildcats, who lost to Illinois here in 2010, will play three future games at the park under an agreement with baseball's Chicago Cubs.

Saturday's game wasn't a sellout - 31,500 tickets were sold - but O'Connell, who prepped in Chicago's northern suburbs, still won't forget it.

"It was an amazing atmosphere," he said. "I'm so lucky to get a chance to play here and have a good performance here."