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NATCHITOCHES – In the first two games of the Blaine McCorkle era of Northwestern State football, the Demons scored quickly, just not often.
Northwestern scored 70-plus-yard touchdowns on the second play of the season opener at Tulsa and on the first play from scrimmage in the Sept. 7 home opener against Prairie View A&M.
For about 15 seconds Saturday night, it appeared the Demons had outdone themselves as Myles Kitt-Denton returned the opening kickoff from Weber State 91 yards for a touchdown — only to see it undone by a holding call away from the return.
The negated touchdown became emblematic of the night for the Demons, who despite some sturdy defense in the first period, fell to the visiting Wildcats, 39-0, at Turpin Stadium.
“The opening kickoff was indicative of our offense the entire game,” McCorkle said. “We return the opening kickoff for a touchdown, and you have a holding penalty that may or may not have affected the play. The first drive or two drives were the same way. You get a first down on a quarterback sneak where you make it and the ball pops out. You get a first down and you get a silly penalty. Those are things you just can’t do.”
Weber State (2-2), a perennial power from the Big Sky Conference, brought the No. 11 rushing offense in the Football Championship Subdivision along. It was the Wildcats’ passing game, however, that set the tone for Weber State.
Sophomore quarterback Richie Munoz threw for 266 yards and two touchdowns in the first half as the Wildcats put together the type of complementary football McCorkle has looked for from the Demons (0-4).
After Northwestern dodged a short field when Weber State kicker Kyle Thompson missed a 34-yard field goal following the Demons’ turnover on their opening drive, Munoz went to work.
With the Wildcats up 3-0 in the final minute of the opening quarter, he found Jacob Sharp for a 35-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to 10.
Munoz led two more extended scoring drives in the second quarter and later hooked up with Jaden Thrower for a 17-yard touchdown that put the Wildcats up 27-0 at halftime.
Weber State kept the Demons under 100 total yards until late in the fourth quarter while becoming the first team to hand Northwestern a shutout loss in Turpin Stadium since Stephen F. Austin in 2011.
“We learned what it’s like to play a week-in, week-out top-25 team,” McCorkle said. “I have a very dear friend in coaching, Melvin Smith, and he reminds me all the time you lose or you learn, and we’re doing a lot of learning right now. Melvin’s right, and tonight we learned what it’s like to play a perennial power at our level.
“We’re learning a lot, and we’re growing,” McCorkle said. “I say it a lot and it’s true, we know what we signed up for when we came here. I’m not discouraged at all. I told the guys in the locker room, there’s a very, very fine line they have to walk now with recognizing the big picture of where we are, staying positive, playing really hard and encouraging each other but never becoming complacent or accepting the result.
“We’ll never accept that result at Northwestern State. We came here to win football games at a very high level and until we do, nothing else is acceptable.”
The Demons return to action in a week when they begin their lone two-game road trip of the season, starting at Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and including an Oct. 5 Southland Conference opener at old rival Stephen F. Austin.