Photo by Jessica Stewart / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Missouri Western defensive back Ian Thomas watches as Northwest wide receiver Jake Soy comes up with a catch in the end zone for the first score of the game Saturday afternoon. The Bearcats defeated the Griffons 49-35.

Six minutes isn’t much time, but it was enough to silence more than half of the fans in a record crowd at Spratt Stadium on

Saturday.

Northwest Missouri State scored two touchdowns that quickly in the third quarter, blowing open a tie game and cruising to a 49-35 victory against Missouri Western.

The Griffons (5-1, 3-1 MIAA) were plagued by turnovers in this rivalry game, which drew 10,129 fans in breaking the attendance record of 9,207, set in the 2007 showdown between these two teams. Western coughed up the ball seven times — three interceptions and four fumbles — and wasted an offensive effort that netted 348 yards.

“You’re not going to beat Northern State, and you’re not going to beat Truman next week if you go 7-1 in turnovers,” Western coach Jerry Partridge said. “There’s your game, right there.”

The Griffons and Bearcats were locked in a 21-21 tie at halftime, even though Western had amassed 269 yards of total offense — 90 yards more than the Bearcats — over the first 30 minutes. But fumbles by Adam Clausen and Thomas Hodges at the end of pass receptions stymied the Griffons.

“All week we’ve been emphasizing that they’re a big-play team and we’ve got to minimize the big plays,” said Northwest cornerback E.J. Hawkins, who stripped Clausen of the ball, then climbed over him to recover the fumble. “Everybody knew their role today, and we went out to get turnovers, stripping the ball whenever we got somebody wrapped up. Everybody was trying to get the ball back for our offense.”

Northwest coach Mel Tjeerdsma said he didn’t expect Western to give up the ball seven times, especially after ranking second in the MIAA in turnover ratio.

“They haven’t played like that, but they probably haven’t gotten hit like we hit today, either,” Tjeerdsma said.

Northwest (5-1, 4-0 MIAA) came out quickly in the third quarter, going up 28-21 on its first possession on a 50-yard pass from Blake Bolles to wide receiver Jake Soy. It was one of a school record-tying five touchdown passes in the game for Bolles, and part of a career day for his sophomore receiver.

Soy finished with a three touchdown receptions (8, 50 and 23 yards), nine receptions overall and 142 yards – all career highs.

Bolles, meanwhile, threw for 297 yards on 22-for-32 accuracy.

“(Bolles) made a couple of mistakes in the first half that hurt us, but all in all, I thought he played an extremely good game,” Tjeerdsma said. “I’m proud of the way he’s maturing and the way he’s handling this football team right now.”

Northwest outscored Western 14-0 in the third quarter — outgaining the Griffons 340-79 in yardage and smothering Western’s offense. The Griffons were minus-3 yards in rushing the second half.

Western quarterback Drew Newhart, who finished with 265 yards passing and touchdown tosses of 29, 11 and 12 yards to Ferrell McGhee, Cedric Houston and Kip Peters, respectively, was sacked just twice – once less than his Northwest counterpart. He said his offensive line did a good job of picking up Northwest’s pass rush..

“I had to scramble around a couple of times, but they played well, and we just have to move on,” Newhart said.

Partridge said he cautioned his players after the game to move past their sixth consecutive loss to Northwest and begin to focus on the Truman State game, to be held at 2 p.m. next Saturday in Kirksville, Mo.

“There was a lot of perspective-type talk going on in there,” Partridge said. “We’re by any stretch not out of it. You can’t let this loss turn into another loss. That’s the danger.”

“That’s not our season,” Newhart echoed. “It’s a big rivalry game, but we’ve still got some more games to be played, and hopefully that will be our only loss the rest of the year.”

Photo by Jessica Stewart / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo