TAHLEQUAH – Gary McKnight Jr. had 108 receiving yards but the RiverHawks' fumbled the ball six times to Washburn who took the season opener 31-7 on Thursday night at Doc Wadley Stadium.

Junior Quarterback Dom McKinzy passed the ball for 244 yards but was brought down four times in the loss.

"Beside the miscues, we showed we could play with a lot of different sets against a good football team," said head coach Rob Robinson.  "Miscues just killed us, we had a bunch of guys in new places…it was just kind of plug and play.  I thought the guys that came in for them did a great job, we just need to clean up, and try not to make too many key big plays."

The RiverHawks missed a few key opportunities early after La'More Wise forced a fumble on Washburn's opening drive, and then going four-and-out.   The Ichabods returned the ball with a 13 play drive down the field for the game's first score on a ten-yard rush on a QB keeper to go up seven with seven minutes left in the open quarter.   Ra'Keim Abdul gave NSU their best rushing drive of the game with three straight rushes up the middle to get the RiverHawks on the edge of the Washburn red zone.  However, the drive faltered on the WU 24-yard line with a fumble; on the turnover the Ichabods scored the game's second TD on a 17 yard pass as the quarter ended.

In the second period, NSU's defense halted Washburn in all four of their drives including one that was on the Northeastern State one-yard line.  On a fourth-and-goal Quincy Dotson forced fumble to help get the RiverHawks some momentum.  With just under three-minutes left until the half, McKinzy connected with McKnight for 61 yards to set up a touchdown pass to Abdul at the back of the end zone.

Trailing 13-7 at the half Northeastern State looked like the team with the momentum and the ball to start the second half.    

In their opening drive the RiverHawks found themselves deep in their own territory and a NSU fumble recovery brought the ball out of the end zone saved them from an Ichabod TD.   Washburn would end up scoring in all three of their drives to extend their lead to 24 where it would end at.

The RiverHawks finished the night with 22 net yards on the ground while Washburn ran for 230.  On the defensive side, Tim Howard led NSU with 7.5 tackles, with Wise just behind with six.

Northeastern State will go on the road for week two and visit Lindenwood who the RiverHawks have beaten in their last two meetings; the Lions lost in their opener to Central Oklahoma 35-14.  

"We got to clean it up (next week), saw a lot of great effort on the defense, a lot of great effort on the offense," added Robinson. 

Kickoff will be on Thursday, Sept. 7 at 7 p.m., the game will be carried live on 96.3 FM, or viewed on TheMIAANetwork.com.