st. Paul, minn. - concordia university junior tight end nate thienes (mahtomedi, minn.) had three receiving touchdowns and senior outside linebacker taylor selby (stratford, wis.) had a school record 6.0 tackles for loss in a second straight game to lead the golden bears to a 38-20 win over minnesota, crookston on saturday afternoon at sea foam stadium. box score | photos
on senior day, senior quarterback spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) also tied a school record by throwing for five touchdown passes while senior sam campbell (cary, ill.) had a caeer-high 210 all-purpose yards (139 rushing, 71 receiving) on 20 total touches (5 receptions). The 139 rushing yards was also a career-high.
defensively, the team set a record with 17.0 tackles for loss which is also a season-high for the league in 2011. Selby's 6.0 tfl's also came with 14 tackles, 2.0 sacks, six quarterback hurries and three forced fumbles in a mammoth effort in his final game at sea foam stadium. He was credited with a pass breakup, as well.
concordia came out with a strong start, building a 24-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter as junior tre mason (league city, texas) hauled in a 59-yard touchdown from ohm. The touchdown followed a pair of thienes scores after freshman tom obarski (burnsville, minn.) started the day's scoring midway through the first quarter with a 41-yard field goal.
minnesota, crookston scored their first touchdown at 3:39 to play in the half, a 16-yard keeper by a.j. Barge who rushed for 113 yards and passed for 92 to lead the golden eagle offense.
concordia struck again with under a minute to play in the half as ohm connected with redshirt freshman tight end jermaine clemon (racine, wis.) for a four yard touchdown pass after he rumbled for 38-yards on the previous play, dragging umc defenders as he tried to plow his way to the goal line.
the touchdowns to thienes (pictured right, who had 4 receptions, 39 yards) and clemon were the first touchdown passes to a non-wide receiver this season.
at the half, concordia led 31-7 with 284 yards of total offense compared to umc's 163 yards.
in the second half, umc came out strong in the third quarter, scoring on their opening drive but missed the two point conversion attempt as they tried to cut the score to 16-points to make it a two score game.
they would get into scoring position again on their next drive, getting to the cu 21-yard line before missing a 37-yard field goal. After a concordia interception, umc drove down to the cu 6-yard line before a pair of costly penalties moved them back to the 23-yard line where barge was intercepted at the 1-yard line by sophomore mike willett (woodbury, minn.).
on umc's last possession of the quarter, they moved down into the red zone as the quarter ended, punching in a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to cut the margin to 31-20 with 14:54 to play in the game.
with the golden eagles threatening a comeback, concordia's offense responded by driving 71 yards on seven plays as ohm found thienes for a 17-yard scoring strike to put the game away. On the drive, campbell (right) burst open for a 42-yard run, his long of the day and three yards short of his career long run (at augustana, 2009).
ohm finished with 247 yards passing while rushing for 17 more. He completed 14-28 on the day but was intercepted three times.
concordia's defense allowed 227 yards rushing to the golden eagles however they stopped the nation's second leading rusher, richard haley, to 96 yards on 27 attempts (3.6 per carry). It took umc 55 attempts to gain their 227 yards as they averaged 4.1 as a team.
concordia closes out their 2011 season with a pair of neutral site games. Next saturday, november 5th at 2:00 p.m. They travel to west union, iowa to face upper iowa at north fayette high school.
they close their season out on november 12th with a 5:00 p.m. Kickoff against southwest minnesota state at metrodome.
notes:
- sam campbell went over 1,000 combined rushing/receiving yards in the win, with 796 rushing and 211 receiving on the season for 1,047. He has at least one reception in 39 straight games, one short of calvin simon's record of 40 (2007-10).
- concordia's first 16 touchdown passes all went to their 1-2-3 wide receivers (charles gilbert, tre mason, cordell smith). Today, ohm found the tight ends for 4 touchdowns, with just one to a wr (mason).
- charles gilbert's touchdown streak came to a close at nine games. It's the first time he's been held out of the end zone in 2011. He had 1 catch for 14 yards. He was targeted deep a handful of times, though.
- tom obarski is now 7-for-8 on field goal attempts under 50 yards and is 4-for-5 on field goals of 40-49 yards.
- al quaye made 11 tackles, his seventh consecutive game with 8 or more tackles and fifth game with 10-plus stops. He also had 3.0 tfl's. He leads the team and is among the nsic league leaders with 89 tackles. He has 306 career tackles.
- freshman brock molden made his second career sack. The true freshman has played in eight games, but has made four starts with 4.0 tfl's and 2.0 sacks.
- taylor selby has 12.0 tfl's and 4.0 sacks in the last two games. He leads concordia with 18.5 tfl's and 5.0 sacks, and is second with 70 tackles. He has three games with 12 or more tackles on the year.
- jay moten blocked his second kick of the season, this time a punt in the first half that was recovered by concordia.
- mike willett was involved in 2 turnovers, an interception and a fumble recovery.
- concordia's 82.0 team tackles for loss are still 33.0 off the school record (2003) of 115.0
- spencer ohm needs 154 passing yards to reach 5,000 for his career, and needs 2 passing td's for 40 career scoring strikes. He ranks 4th in career passing td's and 5th in passing yardage.
- concordia is now 9-3 all-time against umc and 3-0 at home against the golden eagles with an eight game winning streak overall in the series. The 20 points scored by umc is the most against concordia since 2001 when umc beat cu 54-50 in crookston. Concordia has scored at leat 28 points in eight straight meetings with umc.
photos by ted schwerzler
