(St. Joseph, MO) — NW Missouri St. kept their slim playoff hopes alive as they beat Missouri Western for the 11th straight time 33-23 on Saturday afternoon.
The game was close going to the second half — the Bearcats only had a 16-13 advantage at the half but thanks to a tank, Northwest took over in the third quarter. Tank Young busted a 46 yard TD run on Northwest’s first drive of the 2nd half and then a little over 5 minutes later got into the end zone again on a 10 yard run to build a 30-13 lead. Western would come back to make a game — a 37 yard field goal and a 41 yard TD pass from Jake Berrey to Brendan Berwald made it a one score game 30-23 with 5:57 left. After a Bearcat 3 and out, Austin McKinney got a key interception off a Berrey pass and Northwest took time off the clock with a nice drive resulting in a 22 yard field goal from Noah Guastella with 1:26 left in the game to make a two possession game.
The day belonged to Young — the Junior RB rushed 20 times for 140 yards and 2 TD plus 6 receptions for 92 yards.Chris Ruhnke was 20-32 passing for 225 yards 1 TD and 1 INT. Northwest’s defensive charge was led by Jake Fisher who made five stops on the day – all were tackles-for-loss – that included two quarterback sacks. Northwest limited MWSU to 22 rushing yards on 21 attempts.
Northwest will wrap up the 2024 regular season at home against Pittsburg State. Kick is set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Bearcat Stadium in Maryville, Mo.
