wayne, neb. - the concordia university football team (5-2, 4-2 nsic) picked up their second road win against a ranked opponent on the season, defeating #23 wayne state (5-2, 4-2 nsic) in a tightly played 17-14 game at bob cunningham field at memorial stadium on saturday afternoon. Making his first collegiate start, redshirt freshman quarterback james peterson (blaine, minn.) led the offense with 328 passing yards and two touchdown strikes. box score

doxie's interception photo: tim gray/wayne st.

the concordia defense also had a big day, as the secondary held the powerful wayne state offense to just 107 passing yards and got the play of the day from senior safety arnold doxie (right, chesapeake, va.) who intercepted wildcat quarterback evan johnson in the end zone with 1:10 to play in the back of the end zone to end the wildcat threat and seal the victory.

the interception also gave concordia the win in the turnover margin, as peterson and the offense played mistake-free football throughout the contest. Peterson completed 22-37 in his first career start and was only sacked twice despite the wildcats featuring a prominent pass rush.

peterson was also a weapon on the ground. The athletic and elusive rookie signal caller was able to evade multiple pass rushes for positive yardage and was also effective in designed running situations. He finished the game with 52 rushing yards on 13 attempts and totalled 380 yards of total offense in an impressive debut performance.

despite the close margin in the final score, this was a game that was dominated physically by concordia. The golden bears controlled the ball for nearly 36 minutes of play while racking up 24 first downs to wayne state's 24:05 and 14 first downs. Cu out-gained the wildcats with a season-high 439 yards of total offense on 78 plays while wayne was only able to total 257 yards on 64 plays.

and while concordia was 7-17 on third down conversions, a relatively unimpressive and non-noteworthy line, it was on third down and long where they were able to convert multiple times when they needed the big play the most.

the only thing concordia was consistently hurt on defensively was the mobility of wayne state's quarterback play. Johnson rushed 27 times for 74 yards and while he was effective at evading the rush, concordia was still able to produce four sacks in the backfield and their strong pass rush kept johnson and his receivers out of sync all day, turning a negative into a positive for the cu defense.

offensively, concordia was able to bruise their way to a respectable 111 rushing yards as they continued to pound the ground game with 41 rushing attempts. Junior sam campbell (cary, ill.) led the squad by carrying 21 times for 69 yards in the game. He also had five receptions for 66 yards out of the backfield, breaking the concordia career record for running back receptions with 101. He surpassed chris washington (2000-03) who had 98 career pass receptions out of the backfield. Campbell finished the game with another impressive all-purpose total with 135 yards.

through the air, senior wide receiver calvin simon (shakopee, minn.) returned to the field after missing four games with an injury. Simon hauled in both peterson touchdown passes and finished with eight catches for 94 yards moving into third in career receiving yardage (2,319 yards) and a tie for fourth in career receiving scores with 18 (joe langevin, 1988-91). He extended his reception streak in the process to 35 games and has yet to be shutout in his career.

while simon extended his reception streak and reached pay dirt twice, one streak finally ended for a concordia wideout as junior charles gilbert (jacksonville, fla.) did not score a touchdown for the first time all season, ending an impressive run. He finished with two catches for 21 yards in the game.

also providing some clutch glove work downfield was senior zach hovey (champlin, minn.) who had a 42 yard catch on concordia's opening drive of the second half. After a 15-yard personal foul penalty against the wildcats on the play, concordia had the ball inside wayne state's 30 yard line and would proceed to kick a go-ahead field goal to break a 7-7 halftime tie.

the field goal by steven king (sr., johnston, iowa) was from 24 yards out and he finished the day 1-3 on field goals but converted both pat attempts in the narrow win.

hovey, meanwhile, added a big third down reception over the middle later in the second half and finished with three catches for 84 yards in the game.

defensively, the team tackle leader on the season, junior linebacker al quaye (champlin, minn.) led the team again with 10 tackles including a pair of tackles for loss. Sophomore nathan maher (rockford, minn.) had a breakout performance with eight tackles and a team-high 2.5 tackles for loss and a pair of solo sacks as he set new career-highs across the board in a big performance.

as a defense, concordia ripped off 9.0 team tackles for loss for a total of 35 lost yardage for the wildcats. They also had four sacks as sophomore zach moore (chicago, ill.) added a sack for the sixth time in seven games and leads the defense with 7.5 on the season while redshirt freshman denzell blackmon (chicago, ill.) had the other sack.

senior punter t.g. Schoenberg (woodbury, minn.) led concordia's special teams with his best game of the year as he averaged 42.6 yards on his five punts including a season long punt of 63 yards. But most importantly, he held wayne state's dangerous returner, frederic bruno, to only three punt return yards on one opportunity.

the win for concordia sets up a big home game next saturday against winona state at 6:00 p.m. At sea foam stadium.