st. Paul, minn. - despite a dominant first quarter effort, the concordia university football team (1-3, 1-2 nsic, 0-1 nsic south) was unable to sustain the early performance in a 45-24 loss to winona state (3-1, 2-1 nsic, 1-0 nsic south) as the golden bears celebrated the opening of sea foam stadium on military appreciation day. box score
a soldout crowd of 3,615 turned out to watch concordia score on its first two possessions as sophomore quarterback spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) scored the first touchdown in the new stadium's history, on a five-yard run, just four minutes, 38 seconds into the contest.
on winona state's opening drive, junior safety karl pope (washington, d.c.) stepped in front of a 3rd and 11 pass by greg preston at the wsu 41 yard line, 18 yards from scrimmage. Pope's interception was returned down the right sideline for 19 yards back to the wsu 22, setting the golden bears up with excellent field position.
pope's opening drive interception set the tone for the cu defense in the first quarter as they went on to limit the warriors to just 18 rushing yards and prevented them from completing a pass.
following pope's pick, ohm connected with freshman tight end taylor freetly (kerkhoven, minn.) on a three-yard scoring pass as concordia grabbed a 14-0 lead nearly eight minutes into play. Not only was it freetly's first career touchdown, but it came on his first career reception.
but the visitors came back with a 32-yard field goal by cullen fahey and a four-yard scoring run by curtis dewberry to cut the lead to 14-10 at halftime.
concordia extended their lead back to seven points as junior kicker steven king's (johnston, iowa) 24-yard field goal capped a 12-play, 51-yard drive which took 7:14 off the clock, putting the golden bears up, 17-10, with 4:58 to play in the third quarter.
after a seven-plus minute drive that needed 12 plays to go 51 yards, observers assumed concordia sapped winona state of any momentum on their comeback attempt.
but the opposite was the case as winona state ran off five consecutive touchdowns in a span of 8:37.
preston connected for three touchdowns, tying the score when he hit drew alexander for a 25-yard score with 31 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
he then hooked up with derrick engel on a 49-yard scoring pass just 1:24 later. It took a concordia fumble and 1:14 before preston's third td toss, a 16-yard pass to alexander, put the warriors ahead, 31-17.
winona then scored on touchdown runs of seven yards, by rayon simmons, and five yards, by theo burkett, before the golden bears put together an 11-play, 81-yard scoring drive with 3:32 to play as sophomore jerry shaw (milwaukee, wis.) scored on a one-yard run to finish the scoring.
ohm and senior quarterback mitch brecke (maple grove, minn.) combined to complete 25 of 35 passes for 222 yards.
receivers calvin simon (shakopee, minn.), jordan schultenover (minnetonka, minn.) and the tailback shaw each caught five passes. Sophomore sam campbell (cary, ill.) led the rushing attack with eight carries for 41 yards.
simon extended his reception streak to 25 games, catching a pass in every game he has stepped onto the field for cu.
junior punter t.g. Schoenberg (woodbury, minn.) had another solid performance with five kicks for a 38.0 yard average and one inside the 20 with a long of 48 yards. King stayed perfect as concordia's kicker in four field goal attempts with his 24 yarder.
the defense was led by sophomore linebacker al quaye (champlin, minn.) with nine tackles and a forced fumble. Sophomore safety arnold doxie (chesapeake, va.) posted eight stops and two pass break-ups. Senior defensive end will brown (shoreview, minn.) continued his hot start with five tackles and a sack. Junior corner jason mccalope (oakland, calif.) now has 16 tackles in two games with seven more tonight.
the golden bears fell to 2-2 overall with the loss, 1-2 in the northern sun conference. They return to action sept. 26, with a road trip to sioux falls, s.d., and a 1 p.m. Match up with augustana.
