mankato, minn. -- the concordia university football team (3-4, 2-4 nsic, 0-3 nsic south) was shutout for the second time of the season on saturday, falling 35-0 at minnesota state university, mankato (5-2, 4-1 nsic, 3-1 nsic south) in front of 2,749 at blakeslee stadium. box score
the second shutout is the first time cu has been shutout twice in a season for the first time since 1996 while it's the first time msu has shutout a team two times in a season since 1991. In the history of cu's football program, the team has been shutout two or more times in a season six times dating back to 1969 (1969, 1973, 1974, 1985, 1996, 2008).
turnovers were costly once again for concordia, who turned the ball over four times in the first half as they trailed msu 21-0 at the break. Concordia would commit five turnovers in the game, but did force three minnesota state turnovers in the process.
but the offense was unable to get anything going in the game, as the golden bears first down total matched the total number of turnovers committed between the two teams - eight.
concordia was outgained offensively 460 to 149 while the home team ran off 86 offensive plays to the visitor's 48. Msu had a time of possession advantage of over 2-1, with nearly 40 minutes of clock time to cu's less than 20 minutes.
senior dario moore (cb/kr, st. Paul, minn.) racked up nearly as much yards on five kick returns as the offense churned out. Da.moore had 119 yards with a long of 32 to lead cu's playmaking on the day.
in fact, special teams was responsible for one of concordia's most successful drives of the day. In the third quarter, redshirt freshman quarterback spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) fired a deep pass to sophomore wide receiver calvin simon (shakopee, minn.) down the right sideline. Simon was unable to haul in the third down pass, setting up fourth and short.
with the punting unit on, the golden bears pulled out a fake punt, with sophomore hayden vavra (cambridge, minn.) firing a pass to sophomore punter t.g. Schoenberg (woodbury, minn.) near the line of scrimmage. The punter displayed his athleticism, sprinting 28 yards down the left sideline for a first down.
later on the drive, cu stalled out, missing on a fourth and four from the msu 27.
concordia never had an offensive possession in the red zone, while minnesota state was five of eight inside the 20.
the concordia defense was busy, making a season-high 103 total tackles led by sophomore linebacker rojeer wright (minneapolis, minn.) with a career-high 15 tackles. Two other defenders had double-digit tackles as well, senior linebacker mike kudick (denmark, wis.) with 11, 1.5 for loss and junior safety travis meyer (champlin, minn.) with 10. All three players set new career-highs in the game.
playing in front of his hometown crowd, senior defensive end tim oachs (mankato, minn.) had an impressive performance with nine total tackles, three for loss and a half sack. The concordia defense had seven tackles for loss, forced two fumbles and had two interceptions.
senior defensive back dalton outlaw (st. Paul, minn.) had one of the interceptions on the cu three yard line to thwart an msu scoring opportunity in the red zone. Outlaw also had a shot to take another interception back for a score, but had the ball slip out of his grasp near midfield. He finished with seven tackles, recovered a fumble and broke up a pass to lead the cu secondary.
offensively, the golden bears were 15-26 for 91 yards and four interceptions as a team with three players throwing passes.
rushing, ohm led cu with six rushes for 28 yards including a new career-long of 22 yards on a fourth and one play that he plowed through the defensive line and found daylight for the long run. Freshman backs sam campbell (cary, ill.) and jerry shaw (r-fr., milwaukee, wis.) each carried eight times, campbell for 19 yards and shaw for 11.
the home squad was paced by a balanced offensive attack led by receiver chris nowlin with nine catches for 90 yards and a score. Msu rushed 56 times for 198 yards with three players finding the end zone and rushing for more than 50 apiece. Ryan fick paced the msu passing attack completing 20-30 for 262 yards with a touchdown and an interception, playing near-mistake free football.
concordia returns home next saturday, october 18 to host southwest minnesota state at 1:00 p.m. At griffin stadium as the golden bears continue to search for their first nsic south division win.
