Chase McCoy nailed a 26-yard field goal as time expired ending Northwest Missouri State’s 49 game MIAA winning streak as Pittsburg State took an exciting 38-35 win over the Bearcats Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bearcats (4-1, 3-1 MIAA) saw their record winning streak snapped as well as a seven game winning streak over the Gorillas. PSU (5-0, 4-0 MIAA) picked up only their third win over the Bearcats in the Fall Classic, but managed to stay undefeated on the season.
Northwest raced out to an early 21-0 lead silencing the PSU crowd; however, the Gorillas scored 28 unanswered point s including an interception return by Jason Peete and a 56-yard half back pass to take a 35-28 lead.
After fighting back to inside the red zone for the fourth time of the afternoon the Bearcats found themselves with a 4th and 11. Trevor Adams would find Jake Soy with man coverage for a 14-yard touchdown to tie the game with 3:16 left.
“It was a play we didn’t put in our game plan,” said head coach Adam Dorrel. “We want to look for Jake any chance we get, but we still feel good about him with single coverage and we made a good play.”
Pittsburg State would swing the momentum again as a Zac Dickey run put the Gorillas into Northwest territory.
A Northwest penalty would give PSU the needed five yards on 3rd and 1 to extend their drive setting up McCoy’s game winning field goal.
The Bearcats came out firing in the first quarter taking an early 21-0 lead. Scoring with ease Blake Christopher drove the Bearcats on each scoring drive showing the Fall Classic crowd the explosive offense displayed in the first four games of the season.
Christopher finished 21-of-29 for 287 yards and three touchdowns. However a pick six midway through the third quarter was another momentum swing back to the Gorilla sideline.
“We did a great job of executing in the first half and we got away from that a little bit,” Dorrel said. “That falls back on me, and is something I’ll learn from, but we should of stayed more aggressive into the second half.”
James Franklin rushed 10 times for 116 yards, but the ground show belonged to Dickey and PSU.
Leading the MIAA in rushing the Gorillas fell just short of 200 yards on the ground as Dickey raced for 102 of his own on 19 carries. Dickey also proved to be serviceable with his arm going 14-of-21 for 223 yards and one touchdown.
“We had a player assigned to the quarterback and he got to the outside a couple times and we can’t make that type of mistake,” said senior linebacker Chad Kilgore.
Kilgore finished with one of his better performances of his career with 17 tackles including five solo tackles.
Northwest returns to action next weekend in Warrensburg as the Bearcats will try to rebound against Central Missouri.
Story courtesy of NW Missouri State Athletics.
