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By David Boyce  |  Northwest Missouri vs. Missouri Western  |  Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016  |  1:30 p.m.  |  Bearcat Stadium - Maryville, Mo.
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MARYVILLE, Mo. - The final regular-season game for Northwest Missouri State against rival Missouri Western will be a day to remember on so many levels.
 
When the Bearcats run onto the field at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, fans will celebrate the accomplishments of one of the most decorated senior class in the history of Northwest football. These seniors have experienced two national championships, a 50-2 overall record and a 41-1 mark in the MIAA.
 
"I will try not to get lost in the moment," senior defensive tackle Collin Bevins said. "Being a freshman, you remember your first senior day, watching, 'wow that is going to be me in four years.' Now that the time has come, it went by really quick. It reminds you not to take anything for granted. Give everything you got every day."
 
Some of that hard work ethic from the Bearcats come from players who grew up on a farm or in a farming community in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas.
 
Anybody who grows up in those communities know the long hours put in on a daily basis to help feed the country. And sometimes months of work can be wiped out with one hailstorm or tornado or summer-long drought. Instead of quitting, the farmers are right back at it the following spring.
 
Northwest is honoring that community Saturday with its second annual Celebrate Agriculture Day. This year the football team will have a special decal on each helmet. Placed on top of the Bearcat paw will be an ear of corn and MAS, which stands for Midwest Agriculture Strong.
 
"We have a lot kids who if they aren't an ag major, they grew up on a farm or a farming community," Northwest coach Adam Dorrel said. "They understand the importance of agriculture in their small communities. It is important to our players."
 
Many of the players on Northwest football team come from farming communities, and their old-fashion work ethic is one of the important traits of Bearcat football.
 
Bevins stepdad is a crop farmer in Clarinda, Iowa and has been around farming for a while. Still, Bevins learned more about that type of work ethic when he arrived at Northwest in 2013.
 
"Guys like Cody Carlson and CJ Keeney took me under their wing in the weight room and taught me those hardnose, grind ways," Bevins said.
 
Senior linebacker Jacob Vollstedt knows the farming life well. His mother grew up on a farm and both his grandparents were farmers. They had a dairy farm until he was about 5, and then a crop and cattle farm. They got rid of cattle about 10 years ago and are slowly phasing out crop.
 
"My whole life farming has been big," Vollstedt said. "I have been around it. My dad is from a small town in Western Iowa where he grew up farming.
 
"Both my parents have a down-to-earth, hard-working mentality and they have instilled that in me."
 
The Bearcats will showcase those hardworking traits again on Saturday when they take on arch-rival Missouri Western. All games in this heated rivalry sticks a long time in the memory banks.
 
Vollstedt was a redshirt in 2012 and watched Northwest go into halftime with a 17-point lead only to witness Missouri Western win 21-20 and then celebrate at Bearcat Stadium.
 
Bevins had yet to arrive at Northwest, but he knows all about that game.
 
"All I could do was watch film of it and heard stories," Bevins said. "Even watching it and hearing stories, it gets to me. How could you let those guys come up and do that to you?"
 
The Bearcats haven't since then, winning by an average of 27 points over the next three years.
 
"I have seen some of the bad and obviously the last three years have been pretty good for us," Vollstedt said. "We want to keep it rolling."
 
Although Northwest enters the game 10-0 and ranked No. 1 in the AFCA Top 25, and Missouri Western is 4-6, don't expect the Griffons to be a pushover. Dorrel reminds fans that for a rivalry game, you throw the records out.
 
"We all know how they feel about us," Dorrel said. "We are going to get their best effort. But like I tell everybody, they are going to get our best effort, too. Our kids are extremely excited.
 
"We have to show up Saturday and play Bearcat football. We have to play hard, be fundamentally sound and don't turn over the football. If we do that, we have a good chance."
 
That brand of football is exactly what this senior class has done week in and week out for four years. It really is quite remarkable. The applause they will receive Saturday is well-earned.
 
Vollstedt said he will cherish coming out of the tunnel and having all his teammates around and talking to coaches. He said those 5 or 6 minutes will be a cool experience. But once the senior ceremony is over, he is going to focus on the game.
 
"I am not overlooking senior day, but we have bigger goals we aspire to," Vollstedt said. "We are going to play one game at a time and just keep a hardnose mentality."