Earlier in the week, Northwest Missouri State football coach Adam Dorrel expressed that he wanted the Bearcats to play 60 minutes of football. He was after four quarters of focus. In reality, Northwest only needed 14 minutes to take care of Central Oklahoma Saturday at Bearcat Stadium on Military Appreciation Day.

Playing in front of 6,359 fans, No. 3 Northwest stayed perfect with an impressive 72-10 victory over the Bronchos and ran its record to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the MIAA. It was the third highest point total in school history.

In addition, Northwest held Central Oklahoma to its lowest point total of the season. The Bronchos previous low was 19 to Washburn. They scored 24 against Pittsburg State and 30 against Missouri Western.

“It’s nice knowing how well we can play on offense and defense,” said junior defensive end Matt Longacre, who finished with two sacks. “We are so ready to get into these next few games and really find out how good we are as a team and what we can do in the future.”

From the start, the Bearcats were all business, as if they were facing one of the conference elite teams, like Pittsburg State.

It was clear Northwest was not looking ahead to next week’s Fall Classic at Arrowhead XII against the undefeated Gorillas.

The Bearcats forced a three and out in Central Oklahoma’s first drive. It took Northwest six plays to go 51 yards to score the game’s opening touchdown on an eight-yard run by Robert Burton.

Central Oklahoma played its most competitive football of the game over the next five minutes. Northwest didn’t score during that time.

The rout began in earnest when quarterback Trevor Adams hit Clint Utter for a 37-yard, scoring strike that put the Bearcats up 14-0 with 4:47 left in the first quarter.

A few minutes later, Adams struck gold with an 89-yard bomb to Bryce Young for a touchdown. A minute after the score, Burton scored his second touchdown on a 24-yard run.

“It’s a testament to the running game,” said Young, who finished with 104 yards on three receptions. “It really sets up our play-action pass. All the deep balls you see, near the line of scrimmage, we have some kind of play action.

“If we can get the secondary to bite on those moves, it makes it easier for us not to do double moves. We can run straight. It is pretty nice.”

Northwest held a commanding 28-0 lead with 1:06 remaining in the first quarter.

At this point, the Bearcats faced Dorrel’s test. It was important to keep playing as close to error-free football as possible.

Northwest succeeded. Although the Bearcats gave up 10 points, they added 21 more and went into halftime ahead 49-10.

The Bronchos simply couldn’t defend the offense the Bearcats were throwing at them.

With 10 seconds left in the second quarter, Northwest got the ball at its 39. Instead of taking a knee and going into halftime with a 32-point lead, the Bearcats struck one more time through the air. Back-up quarterback Brady Bolles connected with Reuben Thomas for a 61-yard touchdown.

The first half was complete domination by the Bearcats. Adams completed 18 of 21 passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. Bolles chipped in 85 yards and a touchdown on two completions in three attempts.

“It goes to show how hard our offense works,” Adams said. “It can’t happen without the offensive line doing their job. They work their butts off every week. The receivers made catches. All those balls aren’t exactly where they should be and those guys have made great catches all year long.”

Despite all those scores in the first half, Dorrel probably was proud of his team in the third quarter. The Bearcats stayed focused. The back-ups played like starters. They outscored the Bronchos 16-0 in the third quarter.

“I was very proud of them. It was something we talked about at halftime,” Dorrel said. “It was something we challenged them on Sunday and Monday. It was great to see our seniors and our leaders really talk about that all week in practice.

“I know we went a little bit on a stretch on offensive on Wednesday when we had back-to-back false starts and back-to-back drops. I didn’t say anything. Practice stopped and our older guys took care of it.”

By the time the fourth quarter rolled in, the Bearcats were playing their third string and they were still rolling.

“When you have a big lead like that and you can get the back-ups some experience, it helps us out in the long run, especially in the weeks to come when it gets real tough. If we lose somebody, we know we have people to step up and play just as well,” said Longacre.

The Bearcats increased their lead to 72-10 with 7:53 left on a eight-yard touchdown run by freshman Justin Fulks. It was his second touchdown of the game.

“We put a lot of work in practice,” said Fulks, who finished with 54 yards in seven carries. “Our coaches preach to us every week about be the starter and practice really hard.

“When you get a chance to get in the game and compete and show what you have been doing all week, it feels really good.”

Northwest football team made it a feel-good Saturday afternoon for Bearcat Nation.

— Northwest Sports Information —