bemidji, minn. - despite sophomore linebacker tyler johnson's (st. Paul, minn.) 16 tackle performance, the concordia university football team was unable to pull off a road victory in the 2008 finale, falling to host bemidji state 24-12 at chet anderson stadium. The beavers scored 17 points in the second quarter and led 24-6 at the half. box score
johnson's 16 tackle effort was a career-high and two short of scott bromerich's 18 tackle school record set in 1994 against northwestern college. It almost doubled johnson's season tackle total. He entered play with 20 tackles on the season and finishes the year with 36.
concordia finishes the season 4-7 overall for the second straight year and ended nsic play with a 3-7 record. It is concordia's third consecutive losing season.
the defense had some notable performances as they held bsu to 100 rushing yards on the road. Aside from johnson's monster effort, sophomore linebacker rojeer wright (minneapolis, minn.) added 11 tackles and finishes the season with 96. He also had three tackles for loss and three sacks.
senior linebacker duy huynh (apple valley, minn.) finished with nine tackles, giving him 243 in his career, ranking sixth in school history as he surpassed lucas woodford (1994-97) who had 239. With two more tackles for loss against the beavers, huynh moved into sixth all-time with 33.0, passing dan schuster (1998-01) with 32.0.
offensively, concordia struck first with a nine yard touchdown pass from junior mitch brecke (plymouth, minn.) to senior tyrone ruffin (plymouth, minn.) to cap off a nine play, 83 yard drive six minutes into play. It was ruffin's 10th touchdown reception of the year, giving him 33 in his career.
ruffin finished with five receptions for 52 yards in the game, leaving him 70 shy of 3,000 career receiving yards and 12 receptions shy of 200. He finishes his career as the all-time leader in career yards with 2,930, receiving touchdowns with 33 and is second in career receptions with 188.
brecke, meanwhile, put together a passing season that finishes with the second-highest passing yards per game total, averaging 231.1 over seven games played, leaving him second to jim rubbelke's 251.3 in nine games in 1987. He closed out the season completing 16-32 for 183 yards and a touchdown, was only sacked once and did not commit any turnovers.
for the second time all season long, the golden bears won the turnover battle, forcing one while playing turnover free for the first time.
unfortunately for cu, it did not result in a victory as the beavers were able to clamp down on concordia's passing game, breaking up eight passes and sacking the concordia qb's four times.
concordia was unable to regain the momentum in the game after bemidji state scored 24 points following ruffin's first quarter touchdown reception.
concordia's running game was led by freshman sam campbell (cary, ill.), who continued to impress with a career high 85 yards rushing on 18 carries, averaging 4.7 per carry with a five yard touchdown run and a long rush of 30. He also had five catches for 37 yards, giving him a career-high 122 all-purpose yards.
he closes the year as cu's leading rusher with 281 yards on 77 attempts and three touchdowns.
while the golden bears were practically mistake-free, they didn't have an answer on defense for bemidji state's connection of derek edholm to george kadlec. Edholm hit kadlec for two second quarter touchdown strikes and kadlec finished with nine catches for 149 yards while edholm completed 21-28 for 256 and two scores.
