The Missouri Western football team saw the season come to an end losing 28-24 loss against rival Northwest Missouri State University on Saturday afternoon. Northwest came back outscoring the Griffons 14-0 in the fourth quarter to earn the victory after falling behind 17-0 at the half. 

The Griffons went 80 yards on eight plays with Drew Newhart hooking up with Adam Cluasen from seven yards out putting Western up 7-0 with 14:12 to play in the half. Western caught a break when NW dropped a sure pick on the first play of the drive.

The Griffons stopped the Bearcats and answered with another touchdown going 54 yards on nine plays with Newhart hooking up with Andrew Mead from four yards out. The Griffons kept up the defense holding the Bearcats scoreless. Senior kicker Brad Beckwith nailed a 28 yard field goal capping off 11 play 77 yard drive to go up 17-0 at the half.

One thing about Northwest, they are accustomed to coming back and that’s exactly what they did and they needed trickery to change their fortunes. The Griffons opened the second half forcing the Bearcats into punt formation from the Western 46 yard line, but the Bearcats snapped the ball to up man Josh Baker on a fake punt and he ran it in for a touchdown cutting the score to 10 early in the third quarter.

The Bearcats drove down to the Griffon seven yard line on the next possession but Matt Glades would force a Billy Creason fumble with Kendall Davis getting the recovery.  Western couldn’t move the ball and on the Bearcats next possession, they went 59 yards on four plays cutting the Griffon lead to 17-14 with 6:53 to play in the third.

Western answered right back as Newhart hooked up with Mead on a big third down conversion and then found Downing from 39 yards out giving Western the 24-14 lead with 2:37 to play in the third.  The Bearcats put together a 12 and a nine play drive on its next two possessions both ending in touchdowns. Baker caught a five yard pass from Bolles with 12:56 to play then Kelvin Austin scored the winning touchdown with 8:10 to play.

Northwest improves to 10-1 and will now take on Texas A & M Kingsville, the team that handed Northwest their only loss of the season all the way back in week one.