It took three overtimes in St. Joseph, Mo. but Missouri western emerged with the 57-55 gridlock victory. Each team scored on every possession of the overtimes, but a botched play by Minnesota-Duluth on an extra point try gave the Griffons their first playoff win.
Travis Partridge had a monster day throwing for three touchdowns and rushing for four as he threw for a career high 319 yards. Michael Hill carried the ball 24 times for 187 yards and a touchdown. The game on a whole saw 1,147 yards of total offense as each team failed to score on just four drives each in the entire game. On defense for MWSU Stephen Juergens had 17 tackles, three for a loss. Wallace Carter added 13 stops while Marc Harrison had 12 tackles and an interception.
Missouri Western will travel to second seeded Henderson State on Nov. 24 for a second round game.
