moorhead, minn. - the concordia university (1-2, 1-1 nsic) football team got back on track with a 45-35 comeback victory at msu moorhead on saturday afternoon at alex nemzek field. Senior wide receiver jordan schultenover (minntonka, minn.), who had his first 100 yard receiving effort last week at minot state, more than doubled that total with eight receptions for 212 yards and a touchdown while sophomore running back jerry shaw (milwaukee, wis.) rushed for a career-high 100 yards on 19 attempts with two touchdowns to break a 23 game drought for cu without a 100 yard rusher. box score

schultenover's 212 receiving yards was 29 shy of the single game record of 241 set by joseph mapson in 2002 against minnesota-morris. The last back to have a 100 yard rushing performance was eric clinton, who toted the ball for 125 yards at augustana on september 1, 2007. The century-mark total for shaw beat his previous career-high by 40 yards.

the golden bears had three rushing touchdowns in the game, two by shaw and a third by sophomore sam campbell (cary, ill.) after not producing any ground scores in the first two weeks. Cu carried the ball for a season-high 196 yards on 44 attempts and racked up 474 yards of total offense.

meanwhile, the defense was tough, holding msum to 2.7 yards per carry on the ground on 30 attempts. The defense also forced three turnovers with two interceptions through the air which help set up short fields and take the dragons out of offensive rhythm.

but it was concordia who struggled with turnovers early as senior quarterback mitch brecke (maple grove, minn.) fired interceptions on his first two pass attempts on cu's opening two possessions. The result was msum getting the ball on the cu 39 and the cu 2 yard lines. But the defense would hold strong, limiting the dragons to field goals off the two cu miscues.

the defensive resilience undoubtely played into a more confident offensive effort the rest of the way as cu committed just one more turnover through the finish in an otherwise wild football game.

while the defense's early stops helped the offense rally, the special teams unit received a boost from a new source, senior kicker steven king (johnston, iowa) made his cu debut by booting three field goals from 19, 17 and 28 yards while adding a pair of point after attempts for a total of 11 points. King is one of concordia's returning starting pitchers and is a two-way threat as he also plays in the outfield. He will now become a two-sport athlete after joining the football team.

king's three field goal performance tied david gottschalk's 2000 record set against wayne state and is the first time anyone's hit more than one field goal in a game since stephan bjerke drilled two in a game against upper iowa in 2007.

concordia went back to the two quarterback tandem for the second straight week with brecke getting his first start of the season. Although brecke did not start well, he finished strong, firing a 32 yard touchdown to schultenover in the fourth quarter to give concordia the lead, 42-35 with 12:20 to play.

on the ensuing possession, msu moorhead quarterback zach fry was intercepted at the cu 13 yard line by junior corner jason mccalope (oakland, calif.) who also made his 2009 debut. Mccalope returned the pick 19 yards to the cu 32.

concordia took over and pounded the ball down the field, rushing five times for 27 yards before an msum interception and fumble on the same play gave cu a first down in msum territory. On their second life on the drive, they rushed five consecutive times for 31 yards to the dragon 12 yard line where king drilled the field goal to put cu ahead by two possesions with only 4:27 to play in the game.

the concordia secondary would not allow fry to complete another pass as the golden bears took over and ran out the clock.

the defense was led by sophomore linebacker al quaye (champlin, minn.) who produced a career-high 11 tackles and his first career interception, which he brought back for 20 yards. Mccalope finished his cu debut with nine tackles (seven solo) including the interception. Sophomore linebacker jarid jackson (champlin, minn.) also racked up seven tackles for cu.

making their first sacks of 2009 were defensive ends orien facion (jr., minneapolis, minn.) and zach moore (fr., chicago, ill.). They each had a pair of tackles in the game.

in all, the cu defense mopped up 10 tackles for loss, two sacks, forced a fumble (which they also recovered), a pair of interceptions and two pass breakups.

offensively, cu produced a season high output of offense with 474 yards, averaging 6.8 yards per play while garnering 22 first downs. They outrushed the dragons by 114 yards and edged them through the air as well by 18 yards.

concordia won the time of possession war by nearly four minutes, holding the ball for 31:56 behind the resurgent running game.

aside from shaw's 100 yards, campbell rushed for 36 yards on 10 attempts while adding a 10 yard receiving touchdown. Redshirt freshman running back jeremy randle (minneapolis, minn.) had his first career touch, rushing six times for 10 yards including an 11 yard carry while also pulling in a 12 yard reception.

the quarterbacks added 50 rushing yards to the effort as well on nine attempts and were only sacked one time.

brecke led the passing duo with 148 yards and two touchdowns, completing 8-14 attempts with the two interceptions. He was 8-12 without a miscue after the two picks. Sophomore spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) was 6-11 for 130 yards including a long of 51. He threw one int which was fumbled back to cu on the play.

nearly all of concordia's 278 passing yards went to schultenover, but cu did complete passes to six different targets. Junior receiver calvin simon (shakopee, minn.) kept his reception streak in tact and has now caught a pass in all 24 games he has played in. He had two catches for 30 yards.

the golden bears have now evened their record in the northern sun at 1-1 and have concluded their three game road start to the season with a 1-2 record. They open their 2009 home slate at sea foam stadium on saturday, september 19 at 6:00 p.m. Against winona state for military appreciation day in the stadium's inaugural event.