(Maryville, MO) — 1-2 looks a lot better than 0-3. NW Missouri St. avoided that on Saturday with a 32-20 win over #25 Fort Hays St. Bearcat quarterback Chris Ruhnke completed 33 passes, which ranks tied for the second-most completions by a player in school history in a game, to 12 different receivers. Ruhnke tossed a pair of touchdown passes and threw for 273 yards. Only Blake Bolles completed more passes (37) in a game than Ruhnke.
The much maligned Bearcat running game came into Saturday’s contest ranked No. 156 of 156 NCAA Division II teams in the nation in rushing yards per game (7.5). The Bearcats flipped the script and rushed the ball 37 times for 138 yards and two scores. Tank Young found the end zone twice on the ground and he led the Bearcats with 57 rushing yards on 14 carries. Young’s first touchdown came on a 4th-and-2 from the 10-yard line with Northwest already facing a 14-0 deficit to the Tigers.
After the second Young touchdown run, Northwest forced a safety when FHSU quarterback Jack Dawson was whistled for an intentional grounding penalty in his own end zone that resulted in a safety for the Bearcats with 6:30 left in the third quarter. Shane Frederickson tallied an interception and Andrew Dumas recovered a fumble to give the Bearcat defense a pair of turnovers. FHSU managed seven first downs in the opening quarter and were limited to eight over the final 45 minutes.
Northwest heads to Missouri Southern this Saturday. The Lions are 0-3 and are coming off a 35-27 defeat to Missouri Western St. Junior QB Luke Sampson did throw for 309 yards and 3 TD — he has thrown for 720 yards in the first three games with 5 TD and only 1 INT. However, MSS only had 47 yards rushing and only averaging 2.6 yards a carry for the season. The Lions also gave up a 100 yard kickoff return for a TD by Javerius McGuinn late in the third quarter .
Kickoff in Joplin, MO this Saturday is at 2 pm.