wayne, neb. - the wayne state college defense forced seven turnovers and sacked concordia's quarterbacks seven times as the wildcats defeated the golden bears 41-17 at bob cunningham field at memorial stadium on saturday afternoon. box score
the golden bears drew first blood, however, as they marched on their opening drive, going 11 plays and 52 yards taking over six minutes off the clock. But the wayne defense held strong inside the five, forcing cu to settle for a 25 yard field goal by junior stephan bjerke (stillwater, minn.).
the wildcats answered with a long drive of their own, going 71 yards on 12 plays taking over five more minutes off the clock but their drive resulted in a five yard touchdown run by quarterback silas fluellen to give wsc a 7-3 lead late in the first.
early in the second quarter, cu was burned with a turnover deep in their own territory, setting the wildcats up on the 15 yard line as they walked into the end zone in three plays in less than a minute as eric meyer broke through the goal line for the first of his two touchdowns.
the golden bears were not down 14-3 for very long, though, as sophomore hayden vavra (cambridge, minn.), a former quarterback, converted to running back and now tight end, hit senior tyrone ruffin (plymouth, minn.) for a 65 yard scoring strike on the next play to bring concordia back to a 14-10 deficit.
the touchdown for ruffin vaulted him past joseph mapson (2001-03) for the career receiving yards record. He finished with four catches for 147 yards and a touchdown and now has 2,878 career receiving yards, just 122 shy of 3,000. He also surpassed winona state's chris samp for fourth in nsic history in career receptions in league-only games. For his career, ruffin's 183 catches are 17 shy of mapson's school record of 200. He now has 32 career receiving touchdowns, continuing to extend his own record.
unfortunately for concordia, the wildcats would score three more times before halftime and led 31-10 at the break, scoring another score on a short field - a one play, five yard drive once again set up by a turnover.
the concordia defense made some big plays in the game and was led by senior defensive end tim oachs (mankato, minn.) who produced three sacks, four tackles for loss and 10 tackles. Oachs now has 58 tackles, 15.5 for loss and 7.5 sacks on the year.
senior linebacker duy huynh (apple valley, minn.) finished with 11 tackles to climb into seventh on the career tackle list at cu with 234, surpassing steve mudgett (1991-94 and putting him five shy of lucas woodford (1994-97) for sixth. He also had three tackles for loss, passing travis mellor (2002-06) for seventh place all-time with 31.5, a half tackle for loss behind dan schuster (1998-01) for sixth.
sophomore linebacker rojeer wright (minneapolis, minn.) continues his impressive season by making his first interception of the year while his four tackles give him a team-high 85.
as a team, the cu defense racked up 13 tackles for loss and four sacks while forcing two turnovers.
for wayne state, they rushed for 171 yards on 50 carries with four touchdowns while holding cu's run game to just 28 yards on 27 attempts. The freshman combo of jerry shaw (milwaukee, wis.) and sam campbell (cary, ill.) combined for 46 yards on 13 attempts, with shaw carrying four times for 24 yards and campbell rushing nine times for 22 yards. Shaw also had 34 receiving yards on a pair of receptions.
wayne state's ground game was led by eric meyer with two touchdowns and 141 yards on 23 carries.
through the air, concordia starter spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) completed 7-13 for 42 yards but was sacked three times, threw an interception and lost a pair of fumbles before leaving the game early. Backup mitch brecke (plymouth, minn.) came on in relief for the first time since week five and completed 13-26 for 203 yards including a 22 yard touchdown pass to josh harrison (st. Michael, minn.) in the fourth quarter. Brecke threw three interceptions and lost a fumble while being sacked four times.
vavra's touchdown to ruffin was his only pass attempt of the game and he is now 4-4 passing on the year with 133 yards and two touchdowns.
as a team, concordia passed for 318 yards on 42 attempts and 22 completions. Wayne state's silas fluellen completed 16-30 for 213 yards with no touchdowns, one interception and was sacked four times.
wayne state's defense was led by one of the most prominent pass rushers in division ii, troy pribnow, with five tackles, three sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery while tyler krueger also added a pair of sacks.
b.j. Campbell had a pair of interceptions with 69 yards in return yardage while danie leacraft had a 55 yard interception for touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Chris barry had an interception with a 15 yard return and also had a fumble recovery for the wildcats.
cu finished with a respectable 20 first downs and 346 yards of total offense on 69 plays while wayne state had 26 first downs and 384 yards of offense.
on special teams, sophomore punter t.g. Schoenberg (woodbury, minn.) punted four times for a 44.5 yard average with three of those punts landing inside the 20. Senior dario moore (st. Paul, minn.) excelled in the return game with five returns for 101 yards and a long of 32.
next week the golden bears close out their season at bemidji state at 1:00 p.m.
