mankato, minn. - the concordia university football team picked up a momentum shifting, marquee victory in week four as they defeated #11 minnesota state university 28-26 at blakeslee stadium in front of over 4,200 fans on saturday night. It was concordia's first ever-win in mankato and was also the first nsic south divisional game of the season, a pivotal early season win for the golden bears who improve to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in the nsic while msu falls to the same record. box score
it's concordia's first 3-1 start since their 2005 nsic championship season under head coach mark mauer. That season, concordia's week four opponent was also minnesota state, a 35-21 win at griffin stadium to move concordia to 3-1 on their way to a 9-3 finish and a 6-1 conference title. It was also the only other victory over minnesota state in five meetings, and was the second meeting between the programs.
this year, the golden bears knew in order to win at minnesota state, it would take near mistake free football and that the kicking game could make the difference. Both of those factors came to fruition this evening.
concordia committed just one turnover, which could have been extremely costly, losing a fumble inside the 10 yard line just before halftime but still went into the break leading 14-13.
they had that one point halftime lead because six foot, six inch sophomore defensive end zach moore (chicago, ill.) blocked the point after touchdown attempt on msu's go-ahead touchdown in the second quarter to make it a 13-7 game.
concordia would take the lead on a 41 yard passing touchdown connection between juniors spencer ohm (above right, qb, blooming prairie, minn.) and charles gilbert (wr, jacksonville, fla.) for their fifth td connection this season. It was gilbert's sixth touchdown overall and has now scored in every game.
despite the miscue at the end of the first half, concordia came out in the third quarter and marched on their opening drive of the second half as redshirt freshman backup quarterback james peterson (blaine, minn.) punched the ball over the goal line from one yard out for his first career score and a 21-13 lead.
the mavericks answered but the blocked pat haunted them as the two point conversion pass sailed high in tight coverage by senior travis meyer (fs, champlin, minn.) and concordia led 21-19 midway through the third quarter.
late in the third quarter concordia extended their lead to a two score game, with ohm hitting senior tight end hayden vavra (cambridge, minn.) for a six yard score, ohm's third touchdown strike of the game and a 28-19 lead.
early in the fourth, minnesota state responded with another score and converted the pat for a two point game.
from there, the defenses clamped down when it counted most. And minnesota state took over on their own 16 yard line with 3:51 to play in the game. They moved the ball efficiently down the field until getting stopped short for a fourth and four at the concordia 24 yard line with roughly 40 seconds to play.
msu kicker sam brockshus came out, and after a bad snap, got off a low kick which appeared to be blocked. But after a wild scramble for the ball inside the 20 yard line and past the first down marker, a minnesota state recovery was overturned when the officials ruled that the ball was touched by a msu player first, thus not allowing them to recover and retain possession.
the ruling allowed the golden bears to put a knee on the game.
the concordia offense was more than msu's defense bargained for as the golden bears scored more points (28) than msu had allowed in their previous three games combined (23). The top-ranked total defense in the nsic which allowed just 212.7 yards per game entering tonight, was trampled on by concordia's powerful offensive line and efficient passing game for 377 yards of total offense.
the maverick secondary, which allowed only 113.0 yards per game through the air, was torched by ohm for 237 passing yards, just three of his career high which was set last week at northern state. Ohm finished the game 23-34 for 237 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions for the second straight week. He also rushed the ball effectively with 44 yards on 10 attempts and he was not sacked in the game - a tribute to his mobility and the protection from the offensive line.
if there was a vulnerability to the maverick defense heading into this game, it was their run defense which was allowing nealry 100 yards on the ground per game. The golden bears exploited that with 140 on a grinding 37 rushing attempts.
concordia ran 73 plays from scrimmage and controlled the ball for nearly 31 minutes and won the time of possession battle while converting 9 of 16 third downs while rolling up 25 first downs, a new season high.
a big part of the consistent offense was the versatility of junior running back sam campbell (cary, ill.) who went over 1,000 career rushing yards last week. Today, campbell 126 combined rushing/receiving yards, rushing 10 times for 41 yards while hauling in 10 receptions for 85 yards. While ohm and campbell each rushed 10 times, so did junior jerry shaw (oak creek, wis.) as he led the team with 45 yards in a well-balanced rushing attack.
ohm's 23 completions were spread around to four different targets as seniors zach hovey (champlin, minn.) and vavra each had five receptions while gilbert had three. All three players had a touchdown and campbell with his 10 catches was the only player on the team who caught a pass to not see paydirt. Hovey had 68 yards while gilbert had 47 and vavra had 37.
the defensive effort was sparked by the starting outside linebackers, senior tyler johnson (st. Paul, minn.) and junior taylor selby (stratford, wis.) with 10 tackles each. It was selby's first-ever 10-tackle performance and a season-high for t.johnson. Johnson also had 3.5 tackles for loss and now leads the team with 7.5 on the year while selby takes over the team lead in tackles with 27. Selby also had a tackle for loss and forced a fumble in the first half.
the mavericks didn't exactly suffer offensively, as they out-gained concordia 438 to 377 but had five fewer first downs and were unable to execute in the kicking game. Msu rolled up 217 rushing yards led by 170 from taylor brookins on 22 rushes including three touchdown runs.
msu quarterback will brogan completed 19-26 for 221 and a 54 yard touchdown to cody rose while adam thielen led the team with six catches for 85 yards.
on special teams, all three of concordia's punts pinned msu inside the 20, giving them long fields throughout the game as msu had an average starting field position at their own 24 yard line.
most of the advantage in field position came in the second half, with concordia starting on their own 32 on average, while msu was backed up to their own 21.
senior t.g. Schoenberg (woodbury, minn.) punted twice with a 38.5 average and with both punts inside the 20, an overall effective performance. Ohm had a pooch punt for concordia's second punt of the day that put msu at their own 15 yard line when it appeared cu was going for a fourth down.
cu's return game was led by redshirt freshman jay moten (spicer, minn.) who continues to thrive when teams shy away from gilbert. Moten returned four kickoffs for 109 yards and had a punt return for 10 yards finishing second on the team in all-purpose yards with 119, just seven behind campbell's 126.
the win for the golden bears was their second in five meetings against minnesota state and is a 53 point turnaround from last year's outcome at sea foam stadium.
it sets up an important homecoming nsic south division game against #24 augustana (4-0) next saturday, october 2nd at noon at sea foam stadium.
