{"id":3822,"date":"2013-01-07T21:43:02","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T21:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lamp1.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/?p=413"},"modified":"2019-06-12T10:22:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T15:22:18","slug":"an-epic-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/2013\/01\/07\/an-epic-season\/","title":{"rendered":"An epic season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHistoric\u201d and \u201crecord-breaking\u201d are two words to describe the football team\u2019s 2012 season, but \u201criveting,\u201d \u201cvictorious\u201d and \u201cawesome\u201d also quickly come to mind. It was an epic season that will be talked about for a long time.<\/p>\n<p>The Griffons opened the season ranked third in both the MIAA preseason Coaches and Media Poll and No. 16 in the Beyond Sports College Network Preseason Division II Poll.<\/p>\n<p>The team\u2019s only loss in regular season came against the Missouri Southern Lions at Missouri Western\u2019s Homecoming game, 21-20. They went on to trounce Pittsburg State (the 2011 national champions) in Pittsburg, 63-14, the Gorillas\u2019 worst home loss in 98 years. The next week they beat the undefeated conference leader Emporia State at Emporia 57-28. They went on to rout the Washburn Ichabods 56-28.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps it was fitting that the Griffons\u2019 last game of regular season was against its biggest rival, Northwest Missouri State University. Both teams entered the Nov. 10 game at Maryville with 9-1 records. After trailing 17-0 at halftime, the Griffons took their first lead with 1:07 to play, then held off the Bearcats for a 21-20 victory that gave Missouri Western its first outright MIAA conference championship.<\/p>\n<p>The team ended its regular season 10-1, the most wins the Griffons had ever had. For the third year in a row, Missouri Western played in the Division II national playoffs, and for the second year in a row, they earned the right to host the first game.<\/p>\n<p>They entered post-season as Super Region 3\u2019s No. 3 seed and beat the University of Minnesota-Duluth 57-55 in a three-overtime nail biter. That earned them the right to advance to the second round and play Henderson State in Arkadelphia, Ark. Nov. 24. There, they held the nation\u2019s No. 1 scoring offense to more than 30 points below its average in a 45-21 victory.<\/p>\n<p>The Griffons\u2019 historic season ended Dec. 1 in Mankato, Minn., in the Division II national quarterfinals playoff game with a 17-10 loss to the Minnesota State University \u2013 Mankato.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough the season ended two weeks early, we salute our student athletes and coaches on a job well done and give another big thank you to our 22 seniors who finish their careers as the winningest senior class in school history,\u201d said Kurt McGuffin, director of athletics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Honors <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Coach Jerry Partridge \u201986\u00a0 \u2013 MIAA Coach of the Year<\/li>\n<li>Michael Hill \u2013 One of the three finalists for the 2012 Harlon Hill Trophy as the NCAA Division II Player of the Year (first Griffon to be in the top three), Daktronics Super Region Three Offensive Player of the Year, MIAA Offensive Player of the Year<\/li>\n<li>David Bass \u2013 one of eight finalists for the 2012 Gene Upshaw Division II Lineman of the Year Award<\/li>\n<li>Mike Jordan \u2013 MIAA Freshman of the Year<\/li>\n<li><dfn>\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/dfn>Five players on the MIAA First Team \u2013 Travis Partridge, Macon Allen, Michael Hill, Ben Pister and David Bass. Four players named to Daktronics Super Region Three first team: Michael Hill, <dfn>Macon Allen, Colt Schulte, David Bass<\/dfn><dfn><\/dfn><\/li>\n<li><dfn>Ranked 5th in Division II final ranking by American Football Coaches Association.<\/dfn><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Making History<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Record 12-1: most wins in regular-season play (10);\u00a0 most wins ever<\/li>\n<li>First outright MIAA Championship<\/li>\n<li>Furthest advance in post-season play \u2013 quarterfinals (one of eight teams)<\/li>\n<li>Winningest senior class \u2013 38 wins over four years<\/li>\n<li>Six of the team\u2019s wins this season came against top 25 teams, including four wins against top 10 teams<\/li>\n<li>More than 40 team and individual records broken<\/li>\n<li>Michael Hill records: career rushing \u2013 4,969 yards, single season rushing \u2013 2,168. Michael led the entire nation in rushing yards.<\/li>\n<li>David Bass records: career sacks \u2013 40.5, 3rd all-time in MIAA history<\/li>\n<li>Ben Pister records: season record for most tackles for loss &#8211; 22.5<\/li>\n<li>Travis Partridge records: single season for rushing touchdowns &#8211; 18<\/li>\n<li>Taylor Anderson: MIAA record for consecutive extra points made &#8211; 74<\/li>\n<li>Team record: 582 points scored in a season<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHistoric\u201d and \u201crecord-breaking\u201d are two words to describe the football team\u2019s 2012 season, but \u201criveting,\u201d \u201cvictorious\u201d and \u201cawesome\u201d also quickly come to mind. It was an epic season that will be talked about for a long time. The Griffons opened the season ranked third in both the MIAA preseason Coaches [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4191,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3822\/revisions\/4191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}