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By David Boyce  |  Facebook Photo Album

EMPORIA, Kan. - In this new age of breaking news, Northwest Missouri State football team delivered the same old report Thursday evening against Emporia State at Welch Stadium.
 
And it was once again a beautiful story. The Bearcats played up to their No. 1 ranking and beat Emporia State 41-14.
 
"There are a few things we can get better at, but definitely we played with heart and passion," said Northwest senior linebacker Jacob Vollstedt. "That is a really good football team we just played. They have a really good quarterback and schemes.
 
"For us, it was a really good test for where we are at. It gives us a good idea of our identity."
 
As special as the season-opening victory was for Northwest, coach Adam Dorrel made sure his players had their priorities in line, telling them to attend class Friday.
 
"That is key," Vollstedt said. "It is another work week. Tomorrow is basically our Sunday, but it doesn't mean we can skip and not go to class. I know I have an 8 a.m. class. Luckily, I am a morning person. I will be up and ready to roll."
 
Northwest dominated on both sides of the ball. Senior quarterback Kyle Zimmerman, making his first start, was near flawless.
 
"Man, it was awesome, coming out here. It was an exciting experience getting back after it," said Zimmerman, who completed 26 of 36 passes for 310 yards and two touchdowns. "I think we played a complete game, offense, defense, special teams."
 
 Senior running back Phil Jackson ran the ball hard, gaining 94 in 14 carries. And junior running back Jordan Grove caught five passes for 92 yards. Junior Cameron Wilcox rushed for two touchdowns.
 
"We tried to get the run game started early," Zimmerman said. "We harped on that in the offseason. The offensive line did a phenomenal job. The holes they were opening up was phenomenal. You see those guys putting that much effort into it and it makes you want to try harder."
 
Defensively, Vollstedt was all over the field making tackles and senior defensive end Cass Weitl led the front four that stuffed the run and applied pressure to the quarterback.
 
Northwest completely dominated the third quarter, outscoring Emporia State 14-0 for a commanding 34-7 lead.
 
"We played pretty well after we figured it all out after the first drive," Weitl said. "We knew that was what we had to do coming into our first game. We had to make adjustments. We really started clicking in the second half."
 
The Bearcats did give their fans a moment of concern 8 minutes into the first game of the season. A dropped pass forced Northwest to punt in its first drive of the season.
 
Actually, that wasn't a big deal because after a punt, Northwest pinned Emporia State at the 12. With the Hornets starting a new quarterback in sophomore Braxton Marstall against the Bearcats' vaunted defense, logic suggested Northwest would quickly get the ball back in good field position.
 
Instead, Marstall marched the Hornets 88 yards in 12 plays, capping the drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Justin Brown. It was the first time Northwest trailed in over 416 minutes, covering six-plus games.
 
"We were a little gassed at first," Weitl said.
 
And that allowed the Hornets to give their fans a chance to dream that a changing of the guard was taking place.
 
But the Bearcats quickly made sure the dream turned into a nightmare. The green machine became menacing.
 
Northwest put its first points of the season on the board about 6 minutes later on an 18-yard field goal by junior Simon Mathieson. It was actually a small victory for the Hornets, who stuffed Northwest at the 1, forcing the field goal.
 
"Coach talked about it all week that there was going to be some adversity in the game," Zimmerman said. "Emporia State struck early and we had to bounce back from it. It was an early test for this team to see what we were made of. I think we responded to it pretty well."
 
Trailing 7-3 early in the second quarter, Northwest defense took over. After giving up 72 yards of total offense in the first quarter, the Bearcats only allowed 9 yards in the second quarter.
 
"We knew we were going to get some different looks coming into the game," Vollstedt said. "They have a new quarterback and some really good athletes. We made some adjustments and everybody stayed level headed. Our coaches did a really good job of putting us in the best position to make plays."
 
Northwest offense went to another level in the second quarter, scoring 17 points to take a comfortable 20-7 lead into halftime.
 
Zimmerman excelled with his arm and legs. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 168 yards and one touchdown in the first half. He also rushed for 28 yards and a touchdown.
 
The running back trio of Jackson, Grove and Wilcox all ran the ball hard. Jackson rushed for 70 yards in 10 carries and Grove caught four passes for 78 yards.
 
"I was very proud of Phil," Dorrel said. "Phil has worked real hard to put himself in position to have a great year. If you look at the development of Cameron Wilcox, Jordan Grove and Emanuel Jones, Phil has a lot to do with that. He brings accountability to his position group each day."
 
Simply put, Northwest put together a dominating performance in the second quarter that was worthy of the No. 1 ranked team in NCAA Division II.
 
Northwest had such a big lead going into the fourth quarter that Dorrel was able to play quite a few back-ups.
 
"We won the game, but when the back-ups are in, we have to be a lot cleaner," Dorrel said. "For those guys, it was the first game tonight so it was a learning experience."