Purdue hands Northwestern its 10th straight loss and remains in contention for the Big Ten West title

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Aidan O’Connell threw two touchdown passes in his final home game and kept Purdue in contention for the Big Ten West title with a 17-9 victory over Northwestern on Saturday.

The former walk-on went 16 of 25 for 159 yards, hooking up with his childhood friend Charlie Jones six times for 46 yards and one score.

Purdue (7-4, 5-3) could reach its first conference championship game with a win Saturday at Indiana coupled with an Iowa loss.

Northwestern (1-10, 1-7) has lost 10 straight since an opening win against Nebraska in Ireland, this time in the starting debut of second-year quarterback Cole Freeman. The Wildcats won the previous five road games in the series.

While the Wildcats kept the score close, they never had a chance to take the lead after O’Connell’s throw across the field to Jones, who made an inside cut to evade a defender and took the ball across the goal line for an early 7-0 lead.

The Wildcats made it 7-3 on a short field goal early in the second quarter, but O’Connell answered with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Payne Durham to make it 14-3 at halftime.

Northwestern took over at midfield following a partially blocked punt early in the fourth quarter, which set up Evan Hull’s 2-yard scoring run. But Freeman’s 2-point conversion pass failed, making it 14-9.

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Mitchell Fineran’s 26-yard field goal with 7 minutes, 8 seconds left gave Purdue a 17-9 lead, and the Boilermakers took the clock down to 22 seconds after their defense forced a late turnover on downs near midfield.

Purdue has winning records in consecutive years for the first time since 1997-98 and back-to-back seven-win seasons for the first time since 2006-07.

Freeman was 9 of 20 for 78 yards and one interception and lost a fumble. Hull finished with 22 carries for 105 yards.

Northwestern: With their top two quarterbacks — Brendan Sullivan and Ryan Hilinski — out because of injuries, Freeman started, but not much changed. The offense still struggled mightily to score.

Purdue: On a cold, blustery day, the Boilermakers did what they needed to stay in position to win the Big Ten West — and not much more. They held on against the division’s last-place team in a game that wasn’t pretty. But after losing their top runner, Devin Mockobee, on the opening series, Purdue managed to close it out.

Northwestern: Plays host to Illinois on Saturday.

Purdue: Hopes to keep the Old Oaken Bucket — and clinch a title game bid — Saturday at Indiana.