Box Score

The William Jewell College football team opened the 2014 season and the 2014 Great Lakes Valley Conference season with a win, but it didn't come easy.

Jewell (1-0, 1-0 GLVC) avoided a defeat at the hands of Southwest Baptist University (0-1, 0-1 GLVC), winning 29-26. Thomas Cook, Jr., scored two rushing touchdowns and added a game winning 90-yard kick return touchdown.  Cook finished with 114 rushing yards on 24 carries.   

But, alarmingly, Jewell defense failed to stop the Bearcats' offense for the much of the evening, allowing 469 yards with 395 passing yards. 
Southwest Baptist opened the scoring as quarterback Willie Tindal hit Nathan Mourik with a 36 yard touchdown pass to give the visitors from Bolivar, Mo., a 7-0 lead after the first quarter. 

Jewell then scored 15 unanswered points in the last seven minutes of the half.  Cook scored from three yards out followed by a quarterback sneak from DJ Balazs four minutes later.  On the ensuing kickoff the Cardinals recovered a fumble and Brandon Womack was able to drive home a field goal from 27 yards out to give the Cardinals a 15-7 lead at halftime.

Cook put the Cardinals up 22-7 with a nifty 16-yard touchdown run but Southwest Baptist would not back down.  After a long kick return Tindal hooked up with Mourik again this time for 49 yards to the Cardinal one-yard line and running back Bubba Jenkins would run it in to narrow the lead to 22-13.

The Bearcats were able to stop the Cardinals on the next drive and scored another touchdown to start the fourth quarter which cut the lead to two 22-20.   Jenkins found the end zone again with 4:09 to play to give Southwest Baptist it's first lead since the first quarter 26-22.

Thomas Cook, Jr., then provided the Cardinals some much needed momentum as he took the kickoff at the William Jewell ten-yard line and after a couple of nice moves outran the rest of the Bearcat special team players for a 90 yard score to give the Cards a narrow 29-26 lead. 

Tindal was able to drive the Bearcats all the way down to the Cardinal 20 yard line with 1:37 to play. 

The Cards shut down the drive with a game saving interception by Isaac Dozier Jr. 

DJ Balazs finished 12-31 for 126 yards and three interceptions and Anthony Mullins finished with four receptions for 61 yards. 

Mourik, led all receivers with 219 yards while Tindal threw for 395 yards going 28-52 for Southwest Baptist.

The Cardinal defense was led by Nick Messer with 7.5 tackles and 1.5 sacks.  Jimmy DeStafano finished with seven tackles and a sack as the Cardinals defense produced five sacks on the game. 

Jewell will return to action Saturday, September 13 as they travel to Golden, Colo., to take on Colorado School of the mines at 12:00 p.m.