st. Paul, minn. -- junior quarterback mitch brecke (plymouth, minn.) accounted for the first six golden bear touchdowns in leading concordia university (1-1) to a 55-13 victory over minot (n.d.) state (0-2) on saturday afternoon at griffin stadium.
the transfer from north dakota state university passed for 303 of his 397 yards in the first half alone. He completed 19 of his 27 pass attempts, throwing for three touchdowns while rushing for three more.
senior wide receiver tyrone ruffin (plymouth, minn.) hauled in six receptions for 152 yards and two touchdowns, the first of which put him in sole possession of concordia's all-time career touchdown receptions record. The two td receptions give him 25 for his career.
ruffin wasn't the only golden bear wideout to set a school record, as sophomore calvin simon (shakopee, minn.) started the scoring on cu's second possession. On third and 10 from their own one yard line, brecke stayed cool in a collapsing pocket and found simon near midfield. It was off to the races from there as simon galloped for a 99 yard score.
the brecke to simon hookup stands as the longest pass play in school history, breaking the previous record of 95 yards set by a guy parker to joe langevin connection against dakota state in 1989.
simon finished with six catches for 187 yards and the score.
but the game wasn't over after the brecke-simon strike, as johnny lester kept minot state in the game on the next play from scrimmage when he took off for a 60 yard touchdown reception from jon meier to tie the score at six with 9:44 to play in the opening quarter.
cu answered with a seven play, 64 yard drive covering 3:48 with brecke running it in from 13 yards out.
early in the second quarter, brecke found ruffin for the record-breaking touchdown, ruffin's 24th career reception, from 31 yards out to give concordia a 20-6 lead.
once again, lester responded, this time with a 41 yard touchdown reception from meier to complete a four play, 78 yard scoring drive that spanned just 1:48 to pull the beavers back within a score, 20-13.
but brecke found ruffin once again for a 45 yard touchdown strike and with the stephan bjerke (jr., k, stillwater, minn.) point after, the golden bears marched into halftime with a 27-13 advantage. Bjerke put through a career-high seven extra points in the game in eight attempts.
brecke added two more touchdown runs in the third quarter and was pulled with his team in charge, 41-13.
in the fourth quarter, redshirt freshman spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) found sophomore zach hovey (champlin park, minn.) for a 39 yard touchdown over the middle. It was ohm's first career touchdown pass and hovey's first career touchdown reception.
the final score was an 11 yard touchdown run by freshman sam campbell (cary, ill.) with 6:22 remaining in the game. Campbell finished with 31 yards on eight carries.
as a team, concordia was efficient, producing on 13 of 16 third down opportunities while holding minot state to just 1 of 11 on third downs. Cu scored four of five in the red zone and dominated the clock with 36:47 of time of possession compared to minot's 23:13.
the golden bears ran up 597 yards of total offense on 73 plays, passing for 467 yards, leaving them four yards shy of the school record set last year against msu moorhead at home.
cu's ground game came alive, rushing for 130 yards on 41 attempts while holding minot to 83 yards on 33 carries. Minot managed just 209 yards of total offense, nearly half of those coming on lester's two touchdowns (two receptions, 101 yards).
the ground game was led by redshirt freshman jerry shaw (milwaukee, wis.) with 10 carries for 41 yards. Ohm contributed four rushes for 28 yards. All of ohm and campbell's ground stats were compiled in the fourth quarter.
defensively, cu was led by redshirt freshman linebacker al quaye (brooklyn park, minn.) with six tackles while two others, donny severs (burlington, iowa) and robert spence (rockford, ill.) added five each. Severs also had 2.5 tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks and forced a fumble.
sophomore orien facion (minneapolis, minn.) recorded a pair of sacks while senior tim oachs (mankato, minn.) had 1.5 sacks, four tackles and forced a fumble. Junior defensive back travis meyer (champlin, minn.) stepped up for his first career interception followed by a 35 yard return.
the cu defense had five sacks, 11 tackles for loss, forced two fumbles, had an interception, three pass breakups, a blocked kick (dalton outlaw) and two quarterback hurries in the game.
concordia will look to carry the momentum over to next week, when they close out their three game home stand to start the season at griffin stadium against msu moorhead at 1:00 p.m.
photos courtesy justin oakman photography
