After a tough 31-24 overtime loss in the home opener against Mckendree University (1-1, 0-0 GLVC) the Wildcats Football team (1-1, 0-0 GLIAC) bounced back this past weekend at home against UW-Oshkosh (1-1, 0-0 WIAC), a team that had previously beaten NMU 28-10 last year in the Superior Dome. 

“That was a team that had smacked us last year, and I don’t know what it looked like to you, but after I watched the film, just the hitting of the game, I felt like we were pretty dominant and hitting there,” Coach Kyle Nystrom said.

The Wildcats played a very physical game as it was low scoring with a 13-10 win over the Titans as these early season games have come down to the wire. 

“I always like to play physically like that whenever we can. And I’m overjoyed when we can be that physical of a team,” Nystrom said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been that way, so I feel a bit [overjoyed] about that part. I want to see us get better along the way also.”

The offense has been a bright spot so far this season as the ball has moved down the field well for the ‘Cats. They seemed to have stepped on their own toes by having over 10 penalties for 100+ yards each of the past two weeks.

“It’s not acceptable and we’ve already limited some playing time for people too … but I will say this after watching the film, we’re about halfway there,” Nystrom said. “After reviewing all the penalties, we’re about halfway there.”

The winner was decided in the last minutes of both games, with the first game being pushed to overtime after NMU’s Daniel Riser hit the game-tying field goal with 50 seconds left in the fourth quarter. NMU ended up losing 31-24 and this weekend’s game was sealed by a late fourth quarter interception from Isaiah Morrison giving the Wildcats the three-point win.

“We’ve been good for two weeks, so, we’re happy with that. We need to get more takeaways. And the penalties, the offsides and those decision-making penalties gotta get cleaned up,” Nystrom said. “We gotta keep moving forward. It did already cost us again, it cost us the first game.”

The Wildcats will be heading to Grand Rapids, MI this Saturday Sept. 17 to face off against Davenport University (1-0, 0-0 GLIAC) as the Panthers are coming off a big win against Truman University. The teams split last year’s meetings 1-1 with the Panthers taking the last one 13-18.