Bearcats leapfrog Harding for third in Super Region 3

Northwest Missouri State inched further away from the playoff bubble and closer to a first round bye with a one spot boost to No. 3 in the latest set of Super Region 3 rankings released Monday.

The Bearcats (9-1, 8-1) traded places with Great American Conference member Harding (8-1), now at No. 4, even though both teams won their last game Saturday. Northwest's 55-10 Homecoming romp over

Emporia State (8-2) likely gave them the strength of schedule numbers needed to overtake Harding.

After starting at No. 5 in the region, Northwest has moved up two spots in the last two weeks.

As the third-ranked team at this juncture, the Bearcats will more than likely make the playoffs even if they lose their regular season finale to Missouri Western Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The team just outside the top six, No. 7 Winona State, already has two losses itself.

If the Bearcats do beat Western, they would win the conference and could move up to No. 2 in the region, giving them a first round playoff bye.

At worst under that scenario, the Bearcats would stay at No. 3 and be able to host a first round playoff game.

The region's top two teams are still Minnesota St.-Mankato (10-0) and Henderson St. (9-0), although this week they appear in their original order.

Minnesota St. took back the No. 1 spot in the region from Henderson St. which was on a bye last week.

Mankato hosts Upper Iowa in its regular season finale. Henderson State closes out with a home game against Quachita Baptist.

A loss by either team opens the door for Northwest or Harding to move up. Harding ends its season against Southwestern Oklahoma at home.

The final two playoff spots belong to No. 5 Missouri Western and No. 6 Minnesota-Duluth.

Western (9-1) holds the same ranking as last week and risks falling out of the top six with a loss to Northwest. The Bulldogs took over the final playoff spot from Emporia State and should be able to lock it up with a win over Northern State Saturday.

No. 7 Winona State (8-2) and No. 8 Emporia State need help in order to get into the playoffs.

No. 9 Sioux Falls (8-2) had its playoff chances squashed with last week's loss to Minnesota St.-Mankato.

No. 10 Southern Arkansas is making its first appearance in the rankings, replacing Pittsburg State.

Adams told to slide

While the home faithful at Bearcat Stadium Saturday enjoyed it, Northwest Missouri State quarterback Trevor Adams' decision to take on Emporia State's Josh Taylor at the end of a 21-yard second quarter scramble drew the ire of head coach Adam Dorrel.

After the play, Dorrel sent in junior Tyler Seals to play quarterback and gave Adams a stern talking-to on the sidelines for not avoiding unnecessary contact.

"I was very disappointed in him that he didn't slide," said Dorrel. "That's something the last few weeks we've talked to him about and he didn't do it. I felt like he could've avoided a big, big collision. I love that kid to death and he's the leader of our football team. He'll learn from it. It's a fine line in coaching. You want kids that are super competitive, but sometimes they got to know when to tone it down. Those are moments he doesn't need to get caught up in and he needs to avoid collisions."

Thrust into the back-up role because of an injury to Brady Bolles the game prior, Seals finished out the series, taking Northwest the final 26 yards for a touchdown to go ahead 38-3 with 36 seconds left in the half.

Adams re-entered in the second half and stayed in for one series that resulted in a field goal before giving way to Seals and redshirt freshman Matt McCleay for good.

At that point, Adams was the only first team offensive member to depart.

"I just felt like we needed a little bit more work offensively," said Dorrel. "But I didn't feel like we could risk Trevor out there right now with Brady's situation."

Adams stood on the sideline to watch the Bearcats take a 48-3 lead, then headed for the locker room for the rest of the game.

Dorrel said this was a precautionary measure after Adams took two big blows, one on the play where he didn't slide and another on a third quarter sack.

"I wasn't going to put him back in the game anyway, so we took him inside," said Dorrel. "We'll be okay. Everything they do when we're up with a lead like that is precautionary."

Bolles spent the entire game on the sidelines, but wasn't dressed out.

Dorrel said the coaches knew by Wednesday that he wouldn't be available to play.

Northwest sophomore receiver Bryce Young also missed his second straight game due to injury.

He's the Bearcats third leading receiver with 26 catches and two touchdowns.