November 20, 2009

Northwest Missouri Set to Face Familiar Foe

By David Boyce

Sophomore wide receiver Jake Soy saw action in 11 games for Northwest Missouri last season. He caught 10 passes and even a touchdown.

But when the playoffs rolled around Soy was more spectator than player.

A rib injury during a scrimmage just before the start of last season knocked Soy from running with the second string to mostly mop-up time.

Instead of pouting about bad luck, Soy was driven to get better.

"It was a challenge," Soy said. "It definitely helped me in the offseason. I had a chip on my shoulder. I really felt I could have contributed a lot more last year. I didn't get to so that really pushed me in the offseason to have a breakout year this year."

Soy put up numbers in the regular season that's the envy of just about every player who has played wide receiver in the MIAA. He's caught a conference-record 22 touchdowns and has 1,116 receiving yards.

As Northwest Missouri prepares for another playoff run it hopes leads to another national championship game, Soy has become the latest in a long list of success stories in Bearcat land.

Northwest Missouri, 10-1, takes on new rival Abilene Christian, 9-3, at noon Saturday at Bearcat Stadium in the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs. It will be the fourth time the two teams have met in the last two seasons.

"We play this team more than our conference teams," Soy said. "I know their secondary on a first and last name basis. It is going to be a personal match. Right now they are ahead of us. They beat us twice and we won once. We will try to get them again."

Abilene Christian will be encountering a different kind of Soy and junior quarterback Blake Bolles than they saw on August 27 when the Bearcats lost 19-14 at Abilene Christian.

The Wildcats had quite a bit of success shutting down Northwest Missouri's high-octane offense, limiting Soy to two catches for 22 yards and one touchdown. Bolles was 19 for 33 for only 178 yards.

Northwest Missouri is now scoring points like over 50 is supposed to be the norm in Division II football.

"I think it is night and day from where we were the first game of the season," Bolles said. "The first game of the season we didn't execute very well at all. There were a lot of miscues. There were miscues on handoffs, miscues on throws and a lot of stuff like that."

A big reason for the dramatic change in offense is the emergence of Soy as a big-time receiver and the steady improvement of Bolles in his first season as a starting quarterback.

It's a challenge for opposing defenses to figure out what to stop because the Bearcats also have senior running back LaRon Council, who by the way was selected MIAA offensive player of the year.

Council has rushed for 1,202 yards and 16 touchdowns. He overcame serious injuries in 2006 and 2007 to rush for over 1,000 yards in each of his final two seasons.

Soy is looking like he's going to have the same sort of success story.

It's a product of hard work, Bolles said.

During the summer and fall whenever Bolles walked by the racquetball courts on campus he would see Soy with some of the other wide receivers working out. But they weren't playing racquetball.

"I watched a lot of film this summer and got some drills from different schools," Soy said. "We (wide receivers) have a hands workout on Mondays on our off day and we go in there and work on hand-eye coordination stuff just to get our hands right the day before practice.

"We want to go into Tuesday practice flowing."

Bolles always knew Soy had talent and great hands. Last year they developed good chemistry when they both worked out with the second string.

"We still had the connection going into spring ball and it carried over to fall camp and into the season," Bolles said.

And now teams must pay attention to where he's at all the time. Late in the season Washburn did a pretty good job shutting Soy down until two minutes remained when Soy snatched a ball and kept a foot inbounds at the 2, setting up the Bearcats' go-ahead touchdown.

"I'd say he has some of the best hands I've ever seen," Bolles said "He's just a great all-around player and that comes from a lot of hard work on his part.

"I think at the beginning of the year teams weren't expecting him to be as good as he is. But after the fourth or fifth game teams started realizing this is a great player. You got to do something to try to stop this kid. But he finds ways to get open and luckily I find ways to get him the ball."

All those statistics and accomplishments in the first 11 games is a thing of the past. The Bearcats understand as well as any Division II football team that the playoffs are different.

The things that were done in those 11 games don't mean much on Saturday. Trying to beat Abilene Christian is the only thing that matters.

"Right now the season starts over," Soy said. "What I've done in the regular season is all over; it doesn't mean anything.

"This is the first time I get to play in a playoff game with a chance to make my mark."

The Bearcats realize Abilene Christian will be tough. Last year Northwest Missouri ended the Wildcats' season in Abilene, Texas. The Wildcats want to do the same thing to Northwest Missouri in Maryville, Mo.

"They definitely have improved since the first game," Bolles said. "They have one of the best defenses in the nation. They have been playing really well all year and their defense just keeps getting better each week. It is going to be a big test for us. We are just excited about the opportunity."

Fun facts: Northwest Missouri is ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division II and Abilene Christian is No. 18...Since 2005, Northwest Missouri is 28-1 at home. Its only loss came last season to Abilene Christian...Northwest Missouri is averaging 44.6 points per game, which ranks second in Division II...Abilene Christian is allowing only 18.4 points per game, which ranks 19th.

Offensive player to watch: Senior running back LaRon Council needs to run the ball well. If Council matches his season average of 5.6 yards per carry, the Bearcats will be tough to beat.

Defensive player to watch: Senior defensive lineman Sean Paddock was sidelined for most of the second-half of the season with a foot injury. He played the last week of the season and then had a week to heal more. If he's close to healthy, Northwest Missouri's already very good defense becomes even better.

Last meeting: Abilene Christian won 19-14 at home on Aug. 27, 2009.

To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, email dboyce@themiaa.com.