Northeastern State University Athletics

KEARNEY, Neb. – The Northeastern State football team defeated Nebraska-Kearney 31-14 Saturday afternoon at Ron & Carol Cope Stadium.
 
The win for the RiverHawks (1-5, 1-5 MIAA) was the first-career victory for second-year head coach Rob Robinson. The Lopers fell to 0-6 overall and 0-6 in the MIAA.
 
NSU used explosive plays and a staunch defensive effort to take down the home team. The RiverHawks scored touchdowns on plays of 74, 76 and 85 yards, while holding Nebraska-Kearney to just 199 yards of total offense.
 
Leading the way for Northeastern State was Joel Rockmore. The senior running back exploded for a career-high 210 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 18 carries. Junior quarterback Kevin Pantastico finished 7-of-22 passing for 157 yards and one touchdown. Junior wide receiver Matthew Butler had two receptions for a career-high 110 yards and his first-career score.
 
The first TD of the game came on the first play of NSU's second possession. Following a UNK three-and-out, Rockmore took a handoff from Pantastico and busted a 76-yard rush to the house. He hit the hole, broke a tackle and outran the Loper entire defense.
 
UNK tied the contest one minute later when Bronson Marsh connected with Preston Foley from eight yards out. The drive began following an 83-yard kickoff return from Steven Burns.
 
The RiverHawks then ventured on a 12-play drive to regain the lead, this time by way of a 32-yard field goal from junior Eddie Garcia. The drive initially stalled after the first three plays, but a botched snap on the punt attempt was picked up by senior punter Garrett Powell and ran 14 yards for a first down.
 
Nebraska-Kearney went three-and-out on its next possession, which set up the longest drive of the season for Northeastern State.
 
The RiverHawks began on their own 40-yard line and set out on a 14-play, 60-yard drive that took 6:20 off the clock. The drive was capped early in the second quarter by a three-yard rushing TD by Pantastico.
 
Northeastern State should have been stopped on two separate occasions on the drive, but a roughing the kicker penalty on a punt attempt and an illegal formation penalty on a field goal attempt allowed NSU to keep marching toward the endzone.
 
The two teams exchanged scores in the final 1:36 of the first half, and the RiverHawks went into the locker room with a 24-14 advantage. NSU's score came on an 85-yard carry by Rockmore, who had 176 yards rushing in the first half alone.
 
The Lopers were shutout in the final two quarters as all attempts at a comeback were thwarted. The lone score of the second half came on Butler's 74-yard pass reception from Pantastico early in the third quarter.
 
NSU outgained UNK 421-199 overall, 157-58 through the air and 264-141 on the ground. The RiverHawks also dominated time of possession, 33:00-27:00.
 
Northeastern State will look to begin a new streak when Missouri Southern State comes to town. The RiverHawks and Lions are set to meet at 1 p.m. Oct. 17 at Doc Wadley Stadium.
 
SCORING SUMMARY

Qtr.	Time	Team	Play	Score
1	8:33	NSU	Joel Rockmore 76 run (Eddie Garcia kick)	7-00
	7:35	UNK	Preston Foley 8 pass from Bronson Marsh (Brendan Wentling kick)	7-7
	3:09	NSU	Garcia 32 FG	10-7
2	10:44	NSU	Kevin Pantastico 3 run (Garcia kick)	17-7
	1:36	NSU	Rockmore 85 run (Garcia kick)	24-7
	0:22	UNK	Tityus Mitchell 16 pass from Ryan McFarlin (Wentling kick)	24-14
3	8:31	NSU	Matthew Butler 74 pass from Pantastico (Garcia kick)	31-14

 
GAME NOTES

• Northeastern State earned its first win of the Rob Robinson era. The RiverHawks also improved to 3-3 all-time against Nebraska-Kearney and earned their first win over the Lopers since 1980.
• Senior running back Joel Rockmore made his team-leading 30th career start. He has also now played in a team-high 37 career games.
• Rockmore ran the ball 18 times for a career-high 210 yards. He also scored two touchdowns on the two-longest rushes of his career (85 yards and 76 yards).
• The three longest plays of the season for NSU were all recorded in the victory. Those included both Rockmore rushes and a 74-yard pass reception by Matthew Butler from Kevin Pantastico. Butler recorded his first-career touchdown.
• The 85-yard carry was the longest rush by NSU since Nov. 16, 2013 (Thor Long). The 74-yard throw was the longest pass play by NSU since Oct. 19, 2013 (Thor Long to Cruz Williams).
• Rockmore finished with his 10th career 100-yard rushing effort and his first-career 200-yard rushing performance. The last time an NSU player had 100 yards rushing in a game was Nov. 16, 2013 (Terrance Dixon). The last time an NSU player recorded 200 yards on the ground in one game was Nov. 2, 2013 (Steven Hopper).
• Rockmore also registered his sixth career game with 200 all-purpose yards after he finished with 213. The last time he recorded 200 all-purpose yards in a game was Sept. 14, 2013.
• The RiverHawks scored first for the 17th time since joining the MIAA prior to the 2012 season. NSU improved to 5-12 when scoring first over the past four years.
• Northeastern State shutout Nebraska-Kearney in the second half. This marked the first time since Nov. 2, 2013 that an NSU opponent did not score for an entire half.
• The last time NSU had both a 100-yard rusher and 100-yard receiver in the same game was on Oct. 20, 2012 (Joel Rockmore, Jermaine Sherman).
• Neither team turned the ball over via fumble or interception. UNK had three turnovers on downs. This was the first time since Nov. 9, 2013 that NSU did not give the ball away.
• NSU dominated time of possession, 33:00-27:00.
• The RiverHawks led 24-14 at halftime. This marked the third time this season they carried a lead into intermission.
• Kevin Pantastico posted a rushing touchdown in the second quarter, which was his third rushing score of the season.
• Northeastern State had four different players record solo sacks for the first time this season (Steffon Herd, Darian Morris, Gil Niko, Christian Riley).
• The 31 points by the RiverHawks were the most scored in a single game since they hung 35 on Emporia State last season (Sept. 27, 2014).
• The victory by NSU snapped the nation's fourth-longest active losing streak, which stood at 16 straight losses dating back to Nov. 16, 2013 (45-38 win over Central Oklahoma).
• The 14 points conceded was the lowest margin by an NSU opponent since the RiverHawks defeated Southwest Baptist 31-3 on Nov. 2, 2013.
• Northeastern State finished with 264 yards rushing, which was the highest since Nov. 16, 2013.
• The NSU defense only allowed 199 yards of offense to UNK. The last time Northeastern State held an opponent to fewer than 200 yards of total offense was August 27, 2011 (Bacone-70 yards).

 
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH ROB ROBINSON
On what the victory means for him…
"Phenomenal, you can't explain it. I didn't know how I'd feel (when he recorded his first victory). I'm just glad to me it's not a relief. Coaches always say that if wins come as a relief then it's not worth coaching. Luckily it's not a relief. It's just pure joy right now. I'm so happy for the players. They needed this. They needed it more than I did."
 
On if Nebraska-Kearney threw any surprises at NSU…
"They did on defense from what we had scouted. They kind of went opposite of what we thought they would do. We had some really good stuff planned for them but they came out with pretty much nothing we expected. So that was kind of the first hiccup on the first drive and I thought our guys and our coaches did a great job of you know setting it and a little change here and another change there and our guys picked it up well."
 
On Joel Rockmore's performance…
"He had 200-plus yards and he ran hard. He didn't take the ball outside initially. He hit it inside and then got to the edge. He got the tough yards first, and then he got the rest. Our offensive line did a great job up front and got him through the start, but we knew if we could get him in the secondary good things could happen and that's what happened."
 
On where the team goes from here…
"You celebrate for a day and then you get right back preparing for Missouri Southern. Welcome to the MIAA. They're a team that beat (Nebraska-Kearney) so we've got to be all in for that one."
 
-GoRiverHawksGo.com-