MIAMI — Establishing three individual school offensive records Saturday afternoon, the Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Golden Norsemen rolled to a 74-6 non-conference victory over Arkansas Baptist College at Red Robertson Field.
With the victory the Golden Norse are 4-4 on the season while the Buffaloes of Little Rock fall to 3-6 on the year.
Locked in a battle for one of four Southwest Junior Football Conference post season playoff games, the Golden Norsemen conclude the regular season at 6 p.m. Thursday against Blinn College of Brenham, Texas in Miami.
After an open date this weekend the Blinn Buccaneers make the 546-mile trek north with a 3-3 record in the conference and a 5-3 overall mark.
The Golden Norse are also 3-3 in the league while No. 14 ranked New Mexico Military Institute (3-3 and 5-3) dropped a 21-14 decision Saturday to No. 10 rated Tyler Junior College (4-2 and 5-2).
"We've got to have a couple of teams loose four games and I think that can happen," Golden Norse head coach Clay Patterson said. "We've just got to take care of business and go beat Blinn in four days."
A 16-yard touchdown run by quarterback Cordell Grundy along with a safety by NEO defensive back T.J. Lynn and a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Nick Johns to wide out Antwan Woods propelled the Norsemen to a 16-0 cushion after the first quarter.
Following a 24-yard field goal by NEO's Dalton Witherspoon and touchdown runs of 5 yards by both Darwin Thompson and Samuel Jackson Jr. along with a 13-yard TD pass from Johns to Demond Sampson increased the Golden Norse lead to 40-0 at intermission.
During the third quarter touchdown runs of 47 yards by Thompson and 21 yards by Larry Hill along with an NEO school record 58-yard field goal by Witherspoon and a 15-yard fumble return by John Flowers boosted the Norse to a 64-0 advantage with 2:49 left before the fourth quarter.
Witherspoon's field goal eclipsed the previous record of 56 yards set in 1967 by Wayne Cathey.
With just 0:24 seconds left in the third quarter the Buffaloes received a 49-yard touchdown run by tailback Dominic Williams. The two-point conversion pass was intercepted by Flowers in the endzone and returned 15 yards.
The Golden Norsemen received a 40-yard field goal by Witherspoon at the 8:40 juncture of the fourth quarter.
NEO's final score was a 6-yard pass from freshman quarterback Wyatt Steigerwald to freshman wide out Austin Freeth with 3:29 left in the game.
The other school records set by the Norsemen were 468 total yards passing in a single game (the previous mark was 411 by NEO against Cameron Junior College in 1967) and 689 total offensive yards — 221 rushing and 468 passing — (the previous record was 675 total yards set in 1992 against Iowa Central).