Football | 11/26/2016 5:10:45 PM
Maryville, Mo. – Top seeded Northwest Missouri forced three turnovers and held fourth seeded Emporia State to just 297 yards of offense in a 44-13 victory in the semifinals of Super Region Three in the NCAA Division II Football Championship.
The Bearcats struck first as Kyle Zimmerman found Shane Williams for six yards and a touchdown early in the first quarter. Two minutes later Zimmerman would take it in himself from one yard out to make it a 14-0 advantage. A 38-yard field by Simon Mathiesen with 56 seconds left would close out the first quarter scoring.
The Hornets would cut into the lead at the 12:28 mark in the second quarter as Braxton Marstall found Justin Brown for a 12-yard pass and catch. The extra point would be blocked making it 17-6 before a 52-yard pass from Randy Schmidt to Jordan Bishop pushed the lead out to 24-6. NWMSU would tack on another seven as Zimmerman found the end zone for a second time from one yard out. ESU wasn’t done though, as with no time on the clock Marstall found Louis Dailey for a 41-yard score making it 31-13 at the half.
Mathiesen would hit a two 32-yard attempts, one in the third and one to open the fourth quarter to give NWMSU the 37-13 lead. Jarrod Bishop would pick off a Marstall pass with 11:56 to go in the game as he returned it 65 yards for the score.
On the day Zimmerman threw for 186 yards and one touchdown as he added two scores on the ground. Cameron Wilcox added 72 yards on the ground and Jordan Bishop had 78 yards receiving with the one TD. On defense Jacob Vollstedt had 11 tackles including five for a loss and Collins Bevins added 3.5 sacks while Jarrod Bishop and Jack Young picked off passes.
For the Hornets Marstall threw for 327 yards and two scores hitting Brown for 93 yards and Mitchell Foote for 84 on the afternoon. On the defensive side Gabe Cleveland had a team best 13 tackles while Josh Monteagudo added eight stops.
The Bearcats will now face third seeded Harding in a national quarterfinal on Saturday, Dec. 3 in Maryville with the time to be announced early next week.