JOPLIN, Mo. – Northeastern State came up short in their fourth quarter comeback falling 45-33 on Saturday afternoon at Missouri Southern.
The RiverHawks brought a 25-point gap down to five all in the final 15 minutes with an opportunity to win on the road before the Lions scored a touchdown scored on a third down from 45 yards out to tilt the contest in Joplin.
Dimonic McKinzy went 25-for-50 in the air with 331 yards, and pair of touchdown passes. With two games to go he has 2,327 passing yards and needs only 194 to surpass the NSU All-Time mark set by Johnny Deaton in 2011.
NSU rushed the ball for 150 yards with
Ra'Keim Abdul having 86 and a touchdown,
C.J. Shavers ran for 31 and had a TD; McKinzy also went 64 yards on 12 carries.
Northeastern State had a 10-7 edge through the first quarter with
Antonio King catching a 20 yard pass for a TD. However, the RiverHawks would not find the end zone until Shavers scored on a two-yard rush in the fourth quarter trailing 38-20. NSU kept pushing the issue on the Lions and the forced a pair of three-and-outs while driving down the field both times to the end zone to get within five (38-33) with 4:19 left on the clock.
On the next drive, the RiverHawks had MSSU on a third-and-five at midfield but the Lion QB broke a pair of tackles to run 46 yards for the touchdown to push the score to eventual final 45-33.
Gary McKnight led NSU's receivers with eight catches for 92 yards and
Antonio King had four catches for 79 yards and a TD.
On the defensive end,
La'More Wise had 14 tackles, and
Steffon Herd brought down 13 MSSU players.
In total yardage, MSSU had 521 with 251 yards coming on the ground; Northeastern State had 481 on their end of the field.
The loss will send NSU to 2-7 overall and in MIAA play, Missouri Southern holds the same record with the win.
The RiverHawks will return home one final time 2016 on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 2 p.m. to host Central Missouri.
First Quarter
Missouri Southern struck first on the opening drive going down the field 72 yards to score a touchdown on a quarterback sneak up the gut from goal line. The RiverHawks went down the field on the ensuing drive with
Eddie Garcia kicking one through the uprights for three points at the 7:31 marker.
Tony Newman picked the ball off for NSU later in the quarter and it led to a 20 yard pass from McKinzy to
Antonio King just at the end of the quarter to go up 10-7.
Second Quarter
The Lions scored pair of touchdown with one coming at the 8:32 mark on a 12-yard rush and with 1:36 left they threw the ball down 23 yards into the end zone. Northeastern State ran their quick set offense for 65 yards on 11 plays to set up a 27-yard field goal by Garcia.
Third Quarter
On the second drive of the quarter, the Lions drove down the field 63-yards in just over a minute, and scored a TD on a 47 yard pass to go up 28-13. Missouri Southern added three points on a 20-yard drive that came off of an interception pass by the RiverHawks.
Fourth Quarter
Missouri Southern scored right after the teams switched sides on a six yard pass to increase their lead to 38-13. Northeastern State found the end zone on a quick 95 second drive down the field for 75-yards to score on a Shavers short rush. Following a three-and-out drive by MSSU, the RiverHawks made another quick drive down the field for a touchdown on a rush by Abdul to get NSU down by 11. Missouri Southern went three-and-out quickly on the next drive and the punt put the RiverHawks back in their own ten-yard line. McKinzy kept the ball moving down the field and on a long third down at the MSSU 32-yard line he broke out of the pocket and found Eubanks in the middle of the end zone to make the score 38-33. The two-point conversion would fail but NSU would need to make another defensive stop and a touchdown for the win. On the MSSU drive, their quarterback broke through the gut and ran 45 yards on third down to get the game out of reach for the RiverHawks.
| Score by Quarters |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Score |
| Northeastern State |
10 |
3 |
0 |
20 |
33 |
| Missouri Southern |
7 |
14 |
10 |
14 |
45 |
Scoring Summary:
1st 10:56 MSSU - Scott,Brayden 1 yd run (Renken,Brock kick), 11-72 4:04, NSU 0 - MSSU 7
07:31 NSU - Garcia,Eddie 33 yd field goal, 8-51 3:18, NSU 3 - MSSU 7
00:48 NSU - King,Antonio 20 yd pass from McKinzy,Dimonic (Garcia,Eddie kick), 9-30 3:45, NSU 10 - MSSU 7
2nd 08:32 MSSU - Hadley,Josh 12 yd run (Renken,Brock kick), 8-74 3:10, NSU 10 - MSSU 14
01:36 MSSU - Hadley,Josh 23 yd pass from Scott,Brayden (Renken,Brock kick), 7-59 2:34, NSU 10 - MSSU 21
00:33 NSU - Garcia,Eddie 27 yd field goal, 11-65 1:03, NSU 13 - MSSU 21
3rd 08:25 MSSU - Bennett,Josiah 47 yd pass from Scott,Brayden (Renken,Brock kick), 3-63 1:04, NSU 13 - MSSU 28
00:48 MSSU - Renken,Brock 28 yd field goal, 7-20 2:05, NSU 13 - MSSU 31
4th 14:11 MSSU - Cannon,Anthony 6 yd pass from Scott,Brayden (Renken,Brock kick), 5-20 1:35, NSU 13 - MSSU 38
13:01 NSU - Shavers,C.J. 2 yd run (Garcia,Eddie kick), 5-75 1:10, NSU 20 - MSSU 38
08:43 NSU - Abdul,Ra'Keim 6 yd run (Garcia,Eddie kick), 9-80 2:43, NSU 27 - MSSU 38
04:19 NSU - Eubanks,Rashawn 32 yd pass from McKinzy,Dimonic (McKinzy,Dimonic pass intcpt), 9-90 2:55, NSU 33 - MSSU 38
02:02 MSSU - Scott,Brayden 46 yd run (Renken,Brock kick), 5-68 2:17, NSU 33 - MSSU 45
