st. Paul, minn. - concordia university (1-5, 1-4 nsic) surrendered four touchdown drives of fewer than 60 yards as they fell 27-7 to the university of mary (3-3, 3-2 nsic) on a chilly, overcast homecoming for the golden bears at sea foam stadium on saturday afternoon. Concordia threw a pair of interceptions and lost a fumble and u-mary took advantage, scoring on all three turnovers. The golden bears, meanwhile, moved the ball well throughout but couldn't convert in the red zone, going 0-3 as they missed a field goal on their opening drive and turned it over on downs in the second and fourth quarters in the loss. box score
concordia looked good early, moving the ball well in the opening quarter with eight first downs on 84 yards while the defense held u-mary scoreless with three first downs.
the trend continued in the second quarter as cu took the lead on a sophomore shovel pass from quarterback spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) to running back sam campbell (cary, ill.) from 20 yards out to give the golden bears a 7-0 lead.
campbell had a big day with career-highs of 92 yards on the ground and as a receiver. He carried 13 times and posted eight receptions and finished with 184 all-purpose yards.
the touchdown was set-up by a solid defensive stand that ended with a sack by senior defensive linemen will brown (shoreview, minn.) and donny severs (burlington, iowa) for a nine yard loss, backing the marauders up to their own 16 yard line. A 40 yard punt by rhett thibodeaux with a 16 yard return by senior joe butler (kansas city, mo.) put concordia at the 40 yard line with excellent field position.
brown, the reigning nsic defensive player of the week, had another big performance with a career-high 14 tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. He now has 4.5 sacks and 13.0 tackles for loss on the season.
a five yard run by ohm and a 15 yard connection to sophomore zach hovey (champlin, minn.) set up the 20 yard shovel pass touchdown.
another three and out by the defense earned the golden bears the ball back on offense but they stalled out on their own 22 and with sophomore t.g. Schoenberg (woodbury, minn.) punting into the wind, a 37 yard punt gave u-mary the ball on their own 41.
the marauder hurry-up offense was giving cu some early problems and u-mary finally put together a touchdown drive, marching 59 yards on seven plays in 2:20 to tie the game with 2:27 to play in the half. Jamal lomax carried in the touchdown from 16 yards out and would finish the day with 127 rushing yards on 22 carries and one touchdown on the ground.
it was their longest drive of the game in plays, time and distance.
they scored again on a 14 yard pass play from henry lau to lomax for his second touchdown of the day. Lau would finish with three td strikes.
trailing 14-7 at the half, the big surprise was concordia's lack of production from their downfield passing game as receivers jordan schultenover (sr., minnetonka, minn.) and calvin simon (jr., shakopee, minn.) were held to a combined two receiving yards on schultenover's two receptions. Simon was held without a catch in the first half.
u-mary would score again early in the third quarter, taking advantage of cu's second turnover with lau connecting on a 27 yard touchdown to brady martin on the second play of the drive.
simon did get a few looks in the second half, finishing with five receptions for 76 yards in the game, extending his reception streak to 27 games.
ohm finished 17-27 for 168 yards but his two interceptions set up easy marauder touchdowns and he was sacked four times. Senior mitch brecke (maple grove, minn.) played the final drive and executed well, completing 4-7 for 63 yards and rushing twice for 13 yards while moving the chains before they stalled out on the u-mary seven yard line with 6:40 to play.
schoenberg averaged 40.5 yards on his four punts with a long of 49 while ohm delivered a perfect 29 yard pooch punt to the one yard line.
the golden bears remain at home next week when they face #7 minnesota state university, mankato at sea foam stadium at 1:00 p.m. On october 10.
photos courtesy justin oakman, oakman photography
