st. Paul, minn. - despite holding their opponents to three pass completions on 18 attempts in the game, concordia university (1-6, 1-5 nsic) fell at home 54-3 to the seventh-ranked team in the nation, minnesota state university (7-0, 6-0 nsic) on saturday afternoon at sea foam stadium. The mavericks, who lead the northern sun and are the top-ranked team in the region, capitalized with four blocked kicks and four interceptions to set up easy scores. box score
concordia started with the ball, with the mavericks foring an early three and out. They completed their first pass of the game for 27 yards to get into scoring position setting up a jake aberg 33 yard touchdown run. Aaberg finished the day with 145 yards and two scores on just nine carries. The two play drive lasted 40 seconds and was one of four offensive drives that lasted under a minute while a fifth touchdown was scored on a blocked punt.
concordia responded when senior jordan schultenover (minnetonka, minn.) broke loose for a 65 yard kick return to the msu 25 yard line putting the golden bears in scoring position. Concordia marched inside the five where they were stopped short on a third and two rushing attempt from the three yard line. Junior kicker steven king (johnston, iowa) delivered his eighth field goal in 10 attempts on the season from 21 yards out to cut the score to 7-3.
the golden bear defense would force nine consecutive incompletions but it was the maverick running game and their big plays on special teams that allowed them to pull out to a 30-3 halftime advantage. Msu blocked all four of cu's kicks, two punts and two field goals, in the first half. King's two blocked field goals put him at 8-12 on the season from three-point range with three of those misses being blocked by the opposition. He is now three field goals shy of tying brody johnson's 2005 school record of 11 field goals in a season.
despite the margin of victory, concordia was able to manage some success in the short passing game and on the ground against msu. Sophomore sam campbell (cary, ill.) carried seven times for 47 yards and had five catches for 18 yards in the game. His five receptions tied fellow backfield mate jeremy randle (r-fr., minneapolis, minn.) who had 19 receiving yards while rushing for five on three attempts. Sophomore jerry shaw (oak creek, wis.) had four carries and three receptions as well as cu spread the running game between the three.
senior mitch brecke (maple grove, minn.) got his second start at quarterback, completing 17-36 for 136 yards with two interceptions. Sophomore spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) finished the contest, completing 4-6 with his two incomplete passes being intercepted by msu.
concordia tallied 256 yards of offense to msu's 355. Minnesota state countered their poor passing performance by rushing for 310 yards on 49 rushes for a 6.3 average.
the cu defense was led by senior defensive end will brown (shoreview, minn.) with nine tackles while linebacker trevor glomski (wabasha, minn.) had six. As a unit, the cu defense had 5.0 tackles for loss, three pass break-ups and got to the msu qb for eight hurries out of the 15 incomplete passes thrown by the mavericks.
the golden bears return to the road for the next two weeks, facing southwest minnesota state in marshall, minn. Next saturday, october 17 at 6:00 p.m. Before traveling to fayette, iowa to face upper iowa on october 24 at 1:00 p.m.
