TAHLEQUAH – Gary McKnight Jr. had his third career three touchdown game with 170 yards in the air but the RiverHawks season would end with a 62-21 loss to their rivals Central Oklahoma on Saturday evening. 
 
In the twentieth battle for the President's Cup, the Bronchos will keep the trophy in Edmond for the fourth season in a row, and have held it 11 times.
 
A combination of penalties and turnovers for the RiverHawks assisted Central Oklahoma in the season finale with 21 of the Bronchos' points coming off of a NSU turnover.  Northeastern State would get flagged by officials 16 times for 190 yards, which was 11 yards off from a program mark.  Six of the flags would be pass interference calls on the NSU corners who were trying to disrupt a UCO offense that was leading the MIAA in touchdown receptions heading into Saturday's contest.
 
In the first half, the Bronchos ran the score up to 45-0 before McKnight caught a 34-yard touchdown reception with 1:45 left in the second quarter.  Despite leading by 38, in the ensuing drive the Bronchos ran their two-minute offense to go 67 yards down the field to score a touchdown with three seconds left on the clock to go up 52-7 at the half.
 
Both of McKnight's other touchdowns came in the third quarter as NSU's defense held the Bronchos to ten points in the final 30 minutes of play.
 
In offensive yardage, the Bronchos had 460, with 191 of those coming on the ground.  Northeastern State had 318 yards which was mostly in the air with Cade Yeager having 274 passing yards.
 
Defensively, La'More Wise was a solo-tackle short of tying a 40-yard old record with 14.  The NSU record is held by Keith Miller who had 15 twice during the 1978 season.  Heading into the final week of the season Wise was in the running for the national lead for solo tackles, and finished the season with 89 which unofficially put him in first at the end of the regular season.  In his two-year career at NSU, Wise finished with 209 tackles with landed him in eighth in the RiverHawks' NCAA Division II era; on the list, he is the only junior college transfer.
 
McKnight concluded his two-year career at NSU with 1,846 receiving yards and 21 touchdown catches which landed him third in the RiverHawks' NCAA Division II era. 
 
Zac King, another NSU senior crept into the record books as its seventh receiver with over 1,000 career yards.  The Vinita, Okla. native is sixth in NSU's Division II era with 1,275 reception yards, and is third with 110 career catches.
 
The Bronchos finished the regular season winning six of their final seven contests are 7-4, 7-4 MIAA with the victory over Northeastern State. 
 
The RiverHawks season ends with a 1-10 record overall and in MIAA play.