EMPORIA, Kan. – Emporia State spoiled J.J. Eckert's debut as head coach and beat Northeastern State 51-14 on Thursday evening at Welch Stadium.
NSU's offense struggled to find momentum in the opening quarters with one first down in the first half. The Hornets put up 30 points on the RiverHawks by the half with NSU's defense forcing three field goals.
The RiverHawks found the end zone to break their scoreless drought in the fourth with Isaiah Davis scoring on a nine-yard run. On the ensuing drive, Robert Wilkerson forced a fumble and picked up the recovery to give the NSU the ball back on the Emporia 21-yard line. Jake Pruitt would find Mark Wheeland for a 14-yard touchdown reception to give NSU their second scoring play of the night.
Wheeland finished the night as NSU's leading receiver with five catches for 76 yards. Pruitt went 15-for-21 with 139 passing yards.
On the defensive end of the ball, Daxx McCalister led NSU with 13 tackles, all of which were solo. Ty Nichols broke up three passes and eight tackles.
Statement from head coach J.J. Eckert
"I hate to say this; it's something I've heard my entire life. If you block well and tackle well, you can probably do some pretty good things. That was not something we did very well today. Our defense was on the field for way too many snaps, so, therefore, they were worn down they had 92 snaps in a season opener which is astronomical."
Eckert on the character of the team
"I hope we can find that type of opportunity to find that kind of improvement from game one to game two to be able to have things we can build upon. It's going to go back to everything else. This is a tough conference we've got to find out something we can be good at on both sides of the ball, we've got to find some things we can hang our hat on, and we didn't have a lot of that tonight. When you get down to it, we've got some work to do it's good when you know you're going to be able to get back to work and find ways to improve."
NOTEWORTHY
- Brings the overall series to 9-5 with Emporia State leading the head-to-head matchup.
- Career-high tackles for McCalister, his previous was five.
- Career-high reception yards for Wheeland, previous was 42 last season against Northwest Missouri.
COMING UP
The RiverHawks will head home to Gable Field and Doc Wadley Stadium on Sept. 12 to host Central Missouri at 7 p.m.
