CEDAR FALLS - Following tradition down to the dying seconds, Northern Iowa's fans shook their keys in unison.

By then, the Panthers had already locked up another first-round playoff victory at the UNI-Dome.

Thanks to a rush of points in the opening 30 minutes, UNI beat Maine, 40-15, Saturday and kept a piece of its home field record spotless.

The Panthers are now 9-0 at the Dome on opening day of the Football Championship Subdivision tournament. Under head coach Mark Farley, the first-round home winning streak stands at five.

UNI claimed the victory in 2008 before an announced crowd of 8,477. The attendance fell well short of the Dome's capacity of 16,324, but it surpassed the 2005 opening-round attendance of 7,746 when Eastern Washington played here.

The fans who appeared, though, did plenty of key-rattling. That UNI-Dome tradition was noticed.

"It's difficult to get home for a lot of teams on Thanksgiving weekend with the holiday and all the students being gone," said Farley. "But our crowd was exceptional. The noise and energy they brought made a difference."

Most of those first-round victories have been close. Not Saturday.

The Panthers shattered a 7-7 tie in the second quarter with two big passing plays from quarterback Pat Grace to freshman wide receiver Jarred Herring. Those touchdown throws formed bookends around a safety.

Thus, UNI built a 16-point halftime lead, and the Panthers stayed comfortably ahead throughout the second half.

"I'm just very pleased with the effort of our football team," said Farley. "The first one is always difficult to get started, and I thought we played very, very well."

Up next for UNI is another Colonial Athletic Association opponent. New Hampshire comes to the Dome for a quarterfinal duel after knocking off Southern Illinois Saturday in Carbondale. It'll be the third straight time the Panthers and Wildcats have met in postseason play, including last year's last-second, 38-35 win for Farley's team.

"We'll just take them like any other team," said UNI running back Corey Lewis, who became the program's career rushing leader Saturday. "We'll come out here and prepare for them and stay focused."

As for Maine, the Black Bears believed they had prepared a workable game plan for the Panthers and Lewis. They wanted to stop UNI's potent ground game and force Grace to win the game with his arm.

"That was a good strategy," said Maine coach Jack Cosgrove with a small and wry smile. "The quarterback did it."

Actually, Grace did it with a big help from Herring, the true freshman who's helped fill the void left by the departure of Johnny Gray and Victor Williams.

Maine, on a drive set up by a blocked punt, had just scored to tie the game. On the next UNI series, Grace looked right down the middle and saw Herring streaking behind the Maine secondary. The freshman receiver's 42-yard TD reception put the Panthers up for good at 14-7 with 5 minutes, 20 seconds remaining before halftime.

"They gave me the center," said Herring of the Black Bears' defense. "So I went right down the middle, and Pat found me."

The Panthers then found a break when Maine quarterback Michael Brusko stumbled and fell in the end zone before handing off the ball. So UNI owned a nine-point lead and good field position.

Three snaps later, Herring had another touchdown. This time, Grace scrambled out of the pocket and found the wideout deep down the left sideline for a 55-yard scoring strike. It was 23-7 at the 2:51 mark.

Herring had contributed big plays on several occasions in 2008, but he owned just 115 receiving yards in the regular season. Saturday, he racked up 102 on three catches.

"We expect Jarred to be worth 100-plus yards a game, with special teams and receiving," said Farley. "We don't design the offense for one particular person. The system stayed the same. Jarred just got to a position where he was making those plays."

Herring wasn't the only Panther who contributed key plays Saturday.

On his way to grabbing the career rushing mark from Jeff Stovall, Lewis tallied a touchdown. Derrick Law added scores on the ground in the first and last quarters.

The Panther defense shut down Maine's ball-control offense, holding the Black Bears to 84 net yards. That forced Michael Brusko to rely more on the passing game. UNI sacked the Maine quarterback three times, including a De'Veon Harris takedown that led to the safety. The Panther secondary picked off four throws, thanks to Harris, Darrell Lloyd, Sean McMoore and Ben Schmidt.

"We didn't want this to be our last game," said McMoore. "We try to emphasize that every time we had a play come our way. We wanted to capitalize on everything, and I think we did that."

It wasn't perfect. UNI struggled on special teams with the blocked punt and Billy Hallgren's misses on two of three field goal attempts.

Ultimately, though, the Panthers locked up the victory and more than a little respect.

"The better team won," said Cosgrove. "(The Panthers) outplayed us. They were the better team across the board."

Contact Jim Sullivan at (319) 291-1434 or jim.sullivan@wcfcourier.com