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Another Northwestern College-Morningside University football game. Another instant classic. NAIA No. 7-ranked Mustangs gave themselves a chance to tie after holding Northwestern to a field goal with just over a minute left, but the 24th-ranked Red Raiders recovered a Morningside fumble in the closing seconds to seal a 43-35 win at Elwood Olsen Stadium in Sioux City on Saturday to open Great Plains Athletic Conference play. "I'm really proud of the way we played in the fourth quarter," said Northwestern head coach Matt McCarty. Morningside still has nine more wins in head-to-head meetings, 23-14, but it's it's the first win by a road team in the last five meetings, and the last time Northwestern beat Morningside in back-to-seasons came in the Mustangs' first two seasons of varsity NAIA football -- in 2002 and 2003. People are also reading… "This win means a lot to us," said Northwestern sophomore defensive back Jordan Carter. "Especially coming off last week (a loss to Division I Western Illinois). We knew this game would come down to defensive stops." Junior quarterback Colby Duncan scored five total touchdowns for Northwestern (1-1, 1-0 GPAC) as he completed 19 of 28 passing attempts for 239 yards and went for 188 rushings yards on 29 carries with four rushing scores and a 26-yard TD pass to senior Austyn Gerard in which Gerard got behind the Morningisde defender but had to spin around for the reception in the back corner of the end zone, a play that put the Red Raiders up 34-28 after a missed a missed Gianna Bennett point after try. "They were playing (Gerard) one-on-one, so I gave him a chance throwing to his outside (shoulder) and he made a great play," Duncan said. "It was an awesome catch." And Bennett would would make up for the miss with a 38-yarder with 1 minute, 11 seconds left in the game. "She was nails," McCarty said of Bennett's field goal. "That was huge." The field goal came after Morningside sophomore quarterback Colin Gordon connected with Lukas Nelson with 2 ½ minutes left for a 34-yard touchdown pass in which a defensive pass interference was called, but the senior wide receiver made the catch, anyway. Gordon finished 16 of 23 passing for 297 yards, two touchdowns and one interception plus 73 rushing yards on 13 attempts. Both Nelson and all-American wideout Drew Sellon went over 100 yards receiving as the Morningside duo combined for 10 catches, 219 yards and one score each. Morningside opened the game's scoring with a 35-yard TD pass from Gordon to senior all-American wideout Drew Sellon to put the Mustangs up 7-0 with 6:23 left in the first. But NWC scored 21 unanswered, all with touchdown runs by Duncan from inside the 3-yard line. "I really thought we controlled most of the game up front," McCarty said. "That was huge. We talked all week about being relentlessly consistent and finding way to win. And Colby Duncan was outstanding. Our offensive line did an incredible job and Colby just willed us to victory. He's an outstanding competitor. You can't teach that. He's a guy everyone rallies around." "I was just trying to be a ball-player," said Duncan. "I wasn't really thinking about anything other than just making the plays we needed to win." Morningside got back on the board just before halftime with a 20-yard Max Hough touchdown run as Hough, a senior, went for 100 yards on 15 carries. His score made it a one-possesion game (21-14) heading into the intermission. But the NWC lead was pushed to 28-14 as the Red Raiders' opening drive of the second half was capped off by a three-yard scoring run by sophomore Gardner Casey with 11 minutes left in the third quarter. "That was big, getting the two-score lead was huge for us, because things spiraled on us for a little while after that," said McCarty. Morningside responded with 14 unanswered points to tie it at 28 with under three minutes left in the third. "Morningside did a great job of tying it 28, but I really thought we played great from that point on," McCarty said. "We just always try to stay positive," Duncan said. "It was a fun night against a really good team." Senior running back Juven Hudson and Gordon both scored on 29-yard runs about 4 ½ minutes apart. Northwestern converted a number of big third downs down the stretch and ended the game 9 of 12 on third-down conversions while Morningside was 5 of 8, though the Mustangs did finish with slighty more yards of offense (521-517). With NWC up 14-7 midway through the second, Nelson made an aerial catch over two Red Raiders, then Gordon appeared to score a rushing touchdown, but it was called back on a Morningside hold. Then next play went for an interception by Carter, who had a pick-six in the 2025 meeting, a game that was one on a blocked extra point by the Red Raiders. "It was a great play call by (defensive coordinator ) and I was in the right position," Carter said. "It means a lot to me to play at Northwestern and have the trust in my coaches that I can go out there and make a big play." "It's always a battle," McCarty said. "There's a ton of respect between the two programs and we're always so evenly matched. Tonight we just made a few more plays, and the turnovers were huge. The defense made big plays when we needed them to."