EDMOND – Northeastern State fell short in a tough nip-and-tuck battle at Central Oklahoma on Saturday evening falling 17-14 in the 19th Battle for the President's Cup.
 
The RiverHawks held a 14-10 lead in the fourth quarter and had an opportunity to win the game in the closing seconds after holding UCO at the goal line with 74 seconds remaining.
 
Dimonic McKinzy went 19-for-31 in the air with 204 passing yards, and had a pair of touchdowns.  Saturday's performance was his ninth day with over 200-yards in the air and McKinzy completed his sophomore season with 2,769 yards and 26 touchdowns. 
 
Matthew Butler led NSU's receiving core with three catches for 62-yards and a touchdown; Gary McKnight was limited to 27-yards but caught his tenth touchdown pass to finish the year with 817 yards.
 
C.J. Shavers had 13 touches for 76-yards on the ground as NSU would have 134.
 
On the defensive side, the RiverHawks had three sacks and seven tackles for a loss.   Steffon Herd led NSU with 11 tackles and Kenneth Davis had ten.
 
In total offense, UCO had 498 total yards, and NSU had 322.  The Bronchos held onto the ball for over 38 minutes which was mostly tilted in the fourth quarter where they had the NSU defense on the field for over 12 minutes.   
 
After giving up a goal line fumble and an interception in their first two drives, UCO went down the field 87-yards to score with 2:31 left in the first quarter. 
 
The RiverHawks picked up some late momentum near the end of the second quarter off a Reuben Washington sack that put the Bronchos team into their own territory.   Off the UCO punt, Devon Siers put Northeastern State in fantastic position running the ball 24-yards to put NSU on the 19-yard line.    Following a Shavers 11-yard run, McKinzy found McKnight in the end zone to tie the game at seven.
 
Back-to-back turnovers by the NSU in their first two possessions in the second half only resulted in only a field goal by the Bronchos.  The RiverHawks defense stopped UCO on fourth down and a pass interference call on NSU put the Bronchos on the 11-yard line where the drive stalled on good defensive coverage.
 
NSU found success on their fourth drive at the end of the third quarter using six plays to go down 65-yards where McKinzy found Butler for his fourth touchdown of the season. 
 
In the next drive, UCO took nearly five minutes off the clock on a 77-yard drive that nearly stalled on the goal line.  The RiverHawks made a pair of goal line stops before UCO went on fourth down and hit the tight end on a roll out play to take a 17-14 lead with 11-minutes remaining.
 
On the next drive, NSU would have their drive stall out at midfield and a punt put the Bronchos on their down goal line with 8:30 to go.   Central Oklahoma worked themselves out of their end zone and converted on three third downs to go 95-yards down the field and shedding seven minutes off the clock.   NSU's defense gave themselves a shot halting the Brochcos on four-and-goal to give McKinzy the ball needing to drive the ball 98-yards for the win or tie.
 
A pair of passes got NSU out of their end zone but it was a 39-yard catch by Butler that put the RiverHawks 26 yards out from the end zone with under 20 seconds to go.  However, NSU could not connect on another pass and turned the ball over on downs to end the game.
 
The win over NSU brought the Bronchos to 3-8 overall and the RiverHawks will conclude their season 2-9 overall and in the MIAA.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- The RiverHawks held UCO to 56 rushing yards in the first half.
- In the battle for the President's Cup, UCO took a 9-8 edge in the series and in the overall series they led 48-27-2.
- The 17 points allowed was a season low for the RiverHawks defense and fewest allowed points since Nov. 14, 2015 (14 points) at Lindenwood.
- The 2,767 passing yards by McKinzy is NSU's new single season passing record and he also set an NSU single-season passing average with 251.8 yards per game.  Johnny Deaton had the previous mark with 229.0 YPG in 2011.
- McKnight's ten touchdown passes this season is the first time since Trey McVay in 2011 that a NSU receiver had ten or more touchdown catches.
 
Scoring Summary:
1st 02:31 UCO - McKenzie,C. 13 yd run (Dodd,A. kick), 7-74 3:24, NSU 0 - UCO 7
2nd 03:08 NSU - McKnight,Gary 8 yd pass from McKinzy,Dimonic (Garcia,Eddie kick), 2-19 0:42, NSU 7 - UCO 7
3rd 09:19 UCO - Dodd,A. 27 yd field goal, 4-18 0:57, NSU 7 - UCO 10
    00:05 NSU - Butler,Matthew 22 yd pass from McKinzy,Dimonic (Garcia,Eddie kick), 6-65 2:21, NSU 14 - UCO 10
4th 10:11 UCO - Moss,C. 1 yd pass from Eckert,T. (Dodd,A. kick), 12-77 4:49, NSU 14 - UCO 17