Bearcats pull away for win over RiverHawks

By Phil Cobb | November 2, 2024 |

TUCKER KLAMM/THE FORUM
Northwest’s Jake Weber (13), Jadon Brady (4) and Luke Mathews (85) celebrate Brady’s touchdown on Saturday at Bearcat Stadium.

MARYVILLE, Mo — After a tough loss to Central Missouri, the Bearcats’ season fate was sealed. A rare occurrence for Northwest Missouri State, they went into a bye week knowing they were not able to make the playoffs. However, they went into their game against Northeastern State with almost a “nothing-to-lose” mentality, and beat the Riverhawks 44-26.

“We’re not used to being in this position,” Northwest coach Rich Wright said. “We know how many rides we have left. We’re going to try to make the most out of each of those three weeks. We’re going to go out playing our best and that’s the goal.”

Northwest’s first score started with Jackson Miller taking a wildcat-formation run for 12 yards. This would get Jadon Brady within striking distance, as he took a 27-yard run for a touchdown.

Northeastern State would go to answer back on a quarterback scramble to flip the field to Northwest’s 20-yard line. The Bearcats seemed to embrace the run as a ‘bend don’t break’ situation, with senior defensive end Jake Fisher sacking the quarterback as he escaped the pocket.

“Always getting a stop, no matter the circumstance, I think that’s a mindset that we’ve had in the past and through this year too,” Fisher said.

This gave way to a huge hit from strong safety Holden Zigmant as Northeastern State settled for a field goal to make it 7-3 with 4:46 left in the first quarter.

After a fumble on kickoff, Northeastern State would secure possession on Northwest’s 30-yard line. The Bearcat defense stood strong once again. With a combined sack and incompletion, Northeastern kicked a field goal again.

After a return to midfield from Dominic Myers, Bearcat quarterback Chris Ruhnke started the drive finding Brady for a completion. This opened up a Tank Young run as he took it 20 yards to put Northwest on the 10-yard line. Ruhnke would cap this off with a short pass to wideout Tyce Hoover for six.

“The defense helped me out by getting that fourth down so the least I can do is try to get us a first down and score,” Myers said.

Northwest would go to the pass for the next drive. With multiple completions before Ruhnke connected with John Giagiari for the touchdown pass. This put the Bearcats up 21-6 with 1:49 left in the first half.

Northeastern State would fire right back with a 2-minute drill touchdown to put the score at 21-13 at halftime.

Out of half, nose guard Clayton Power put up a sack to pin Northeastern at their own 5-yard line. This would result in a punt from the back of their endzone. Myers would take another return at midfield but this time he found an opening and returned it for a touchdown putting the Bearcats up 28-13.

“It feels great,” Myers said. “Coming onto the sideline and all the guys are coming around me and being happy for me, it makes me feel loved.”

But the RiverHawks would come back once more, this time with a passing brigade, to bring it within one score, 28-20.

Northeastern looked to punt, again pinned back in their own territory. A missed snap and the punter kicking the ball out of the end zone for a penalty resulted in a huge safety as Northwest took a two-score lead.

With this, the Bearcats looked to put the game out of reach. A 30-yard touchdown run from Ruhnke and a touchdown pass to Eric Richardson led the way as they put Northeastern State away, 44-26.

Fisher led the way with three sacks as Power followed suit with 2.5

“I think we played pretty well as a unit,” Power said. “And I think when you can just pressure them like that it’s just really tough on them. I think doing that in the second half was big for us.”

Ruhnke threw for 177 yards and three touchdowns, adding another 51 yards on the ground as well.

“That’s something moving forward that we’re going to have to utilize and capitalize on,” Wright said. “He ran hard today.”

The Bearcats look to roll their momentum into a rivalry game at Missouri Western next week.

“They’re playing better and it’s going to be another test,” Wright said. “It’s just about trying to improve every week. Not as an offense, not as a defense, not as a special teams, but as the entire entity.”