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TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State football team dropped a 38-14 decision to No. 7 Pittsburg State in the season opener Thursday night at Doc Wadley Stadium.
 
The RiverHawks (0-1, 0-1 MIAA) fell to the Gorillas (1-0, 1-0 MIAA) in the first game of the campaign for the fourth-straight year.
 
Senior running back Joel Rockmore finished with 156 all-purpose yards, marking his highest total in nearly two years. He ran the ball 17 times for 92 yards and also posted his first-career receiving touchdown late in the first quarter.
 
Junior quarterback Kevin Pantastico was 20-for-44 and finished with 275 yards passing and two touchdowns. Senior Garrett Powell tallied five receptions for 63 yards.
 
Senior linebacker Irving Steele led all defenders with 13 tackles. Junior safety Steffon Herd (11) and junior linebacker Kenneth Davis (10) also racked up double-digit stops.
 
The Gorillas jumped on top early when they scored on their first two offensive plays from scrimmage. Quarterback John Roderique took his opening carry 39 yards for a score and followed that up with another 36-yard scamper after an NSU 3-and-out. They added a third score at the 5:40 mark of the opening frame when Michael Rose plunged in from seven yards out.
 
The RiverHawks got on the board less than two minutes later when Pantastico found Rockmore streaking up the middle for 47 yards.
 
PSU took a 28-7 lead into halftime when Roderique found pay dirt for the third time with 3:52 remaining in the opening half.
 
Junior wide receiver Jamari Pope registered his first touchdown as a member of the RiverHawks on a six-yard strike from Pantastico with 3:45 left in the third quarter.
 
The Gorillas closed out the scoring on a 23-yard run from Rose late in the third quarter and a Chad Levin 26-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.
 
Northeastern State finished the game with 381 yards of total offense, including 275 passing and 106 rushing. The team was unable to force a turnover, but the RiverHawks did register four quarterback sacks.
 
Northeastern State will now head to Hays, Kansas, for a 7 p.m. tilt Sept. 10 against Fort Hays State.
 
SCORING SUMMARY

Qtr.	Time	Team	Play	Score
1	14:41	PSU	John Roderique 39 run (Chad Levin kick)	7-0
	14:00	PSU	Roderique 36 run (Levin kick)	14-0
	5:40	PSU	Michael Rose 7 run (Levin kick)	21-0
	3:55	NSU	Joel Rockmore 47 pass from Kevin Pantastico (Eddie Garcia kick)	21-7
2	3:52	PSU	Roderique 5 run (Levin kick)	28-7
3	3:45	NSU	Jamari Pope 6 pass from Pantastico (Garcia kick)	28-14
	0:39	PSU	Rose 23 run (Levin kick)	35-14
4	10:39	PSU	Levin 26 FG	38-14

 
GAME NOTES

• The announced attendance of 3,331 was the highest to watch a game at Doc Wadley Stadium since the last time the RiverHawks opened the season against Pitt State on August 30, 2012.  
• This is fourth year in a row NSU has opened its season against Pittsburg State.
• The Gorillas improved to 15-12-2 all-time against NSU and have now won the last five meetings.
• Northeastern State had 10 different players make their first-career starts. They were: Jordan Baldwin (LT), Brian Hobbs (C), Lance Cox (RG), Jacob Drysdale (TE), Matthew Butler (TE), Zac King (WR), Justin Marshall (DE), Darian Morris (S), Irving Steele (LB), and Devon Siers (FS).
• Senior running back Joel Rockmore made his team-leading 25th career start.
• Rockmore finished with 156 all-purpose yards, which was his highest total since posting 217 against Missouri Southern State on Sept. 14, 2013. He had 92 yards rushing on 17 carries and 16 yards on one kick return. He also had two receptions for 48 yards and his first-career receiving TD. Rockmore now has 3,216 career all-purpose yards to move into third place on NSU's NCAA era list (since 1997).
• NSU senior transfer Irving Steele led the team with 13 total tackles and 1.5 sacks in his first game as a RiverHawk.
• Second-year punter Garrett Powell posted a career-high 43.5 yard-per-punt average on eight punts (348 yards). He also tied his career high with three inside the 20, while booting the third-longest punt of his career (58 yards).
• NSU quarterback Kevin Pantastico finished with 275 yards passing, which was his third-highest total in his two years at NSU. He also threw two touchdowns and two interceptions. He moved into fifth place on NSU's NCAA era charts in both career passing yards (2,441) and pass completions (203).
• Northeastern State finished the game with four sacks, marking the most in a single game since Rob Robinson took over the program last season. Those with sacks were Irving Steele (1.5), Kenneth Davis (1.0), T'Nheous Smith (1.0) and Kenny Culbertson (0.5).
• Pittsburg State's starting QB John Roderique had 104 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns in the first half. He was held to -13 rushing yards and no touchdowns in the second half.
• Pittsburg State finished with 375 yards rushing. NSU allowed three teams to rush for at least 350 yards last season.
• Linebacker Kenneth Davis recorded his first career block when he halted a field-goal attempt in the closing seconds of the first half. Davis also recorded a sack early in the third quarter, giving him 2.5 for his career.

NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH ROB ROBINSON
On the first two Pitt State touchdowns…
"Those were just two missed assignments by a young team in their first game. When you get a team of Pittsburg State's caliber, you make one wrong assignment and they're going to take advantage of it. That's what happened. I thought our guys did a great job battling back after that. They started trusting their keys more, but that's what you worry about when you're playing Pitt. They're so fundamentally sound that they are going to make you pay when you make even one wrong move."
 
On the offense settling down…
"We got our jitters out. We started four brand new offensive linemen and it took them a little bit to get adjusted. That was a great defensive front (that Pittsburg State had). But we showed that we're better. We were moving the ball how we wanted to and we shot ourselves in the foot."
 
On the positives…
"The biggest positive for me is I've never had a group of players play this hard. They were still battling on defense even when we got down by 17 late. If you can get the players to do the little things like that, then you'll win some ballgames. If they'll play like that and put that kind of effort in we'll win some ballgames."
 
On Kevin Pantastico…
"Kevin's got to slow the game down. He's trying to make the big play on everything. He just needs to slow it down and take what the defense gives him. The defense is always going to give you something, and sometimes it's best to just take the two- or three-yard gain and keep on rolling. He did a lot of good things tonight, he just has to keep working on the little things."
 
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