minneapolis - the concordia university football team ended the 2011 season on a high note, winning their final three games and four of their last five to finish 6-5 overall, 5-5 in nsic play and 3-3 in the nsic south division as they outlasted southwest minnesota state (3-8, 3-7 nsic, 1-5 nsic south) 60-53 in a game that featured 1,238 combined yards of total offense and 13 total touchdown passes between the squads. box score

the golden bears post back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2004 and 2005.

concordia university senior quarterback spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) set school records and nsic single-game highs by passing for 482 yards and seven touchdowns, completing 20-22 with two interceptions as not one of his passes hit the metrodome turf. He also rushed for 53 yards on five attempts including a long of 36 yards to set the school single game total offense record with 535 yards.

ohm's total offense record breaks one of the most impressive records in school history: james mcnear's 2005 record 524 yards against bemidji state as mcnear became the first player in division ii history to achieve a 300-yard passing and 200-yard rushing performance while he combined for six touchdowns (4 rushing, 2 passing) against bemidji state at griffin stadium.

ohm's touchdown passes went for 66, 28, 60, 45, 38, 40 and 53 yards. Seven touchdown passes totaling 330 yards, an average of 47.1 yards per touchdown.

he finishes his career as concordia's second all-time passing leader with 5,596 yards, tied for second in career touchdown passes with 47 and third in career total offense with 6,025 yards.

smsu quarterback tyler peschong threw for 382 yards and six touchdowns while rushing for 78 yards on 10 attempts. He was not sacked despite being hurried 14 times while seven of his 21 incomplete passes were broken up by golden bear defenders. Peschong finished 31-52 while helping the mustangs play turnover-free football. He led the nsic in total offense in 2011.

as a team, concordia rolled up 751 yards of total offense, their second highest total ever in a game while averaging 10.9 yards per play. They rushed for a season-best 269 yards on 47 attempts to add to ohm's unbelievable passing performance. They were only seven yards shy of the school total offense mark of 758.

seniors charles gilbert (right, jacksonville, fla.) and sam campbell (cary, ill.) each reached 1,000 yard milestones. Gilbert surpassed 1,000 receiving yards with a five catch, 156 yard effort including three touchdowns as he set a school record with 14 receiving scores in 2011. He also finished with 1,046 yards on the season on just 46 receptions. He finished 59 yards shy of 2,000 for his career and ranks sixth in school history while his 25 career receiving touchdowns rank third all-time.

campbell rushed for a career-high 166 yards on 29 attempts with a touchdown, while pulling in four receptions for 79 yards including a 53-yard touchdown as he broke a 4th quarter screen pass for a touchdown to put the golden bears ahead by two scores with 2:28 to play in the game. Campbell finished with 245 all-purpose yards in the game, 1,017 yards on the season on the ground and 1,364 all-purpose yards which was second on the team. Gilbert led the squad with 1,427 all-purpose yards.

campbell (right) aslo broke calvin simon's record of 40 consecutive games with a reception, hauling in a pass for the 41st straight game to end his career. He holds the school record for career receptions by a running back with 146 which rank sixth overall. He finishes as the school's fifth leading rusher with 2,760 yards while reaching the 4,000 career all-purpose yard barrier in his final game, finishing with 4,054.

while the golden bear offense put up major numbers all day, the game was still in doubt late. Smsu scored 28-fourth quarter points to rally back into the game.

after britt wickert hauled in his third touchdown from peschong with 6:25 to play, the mustangs pinned concordia inside their own 10-yard line and had them stopped on the ensuing drive with a 4th and one from their own 16-yard line with 4:41 to play in the game.

but a costly roughing the punter penalty on the mustangs kept concordia's drive alive and kept their offense off the field. Smsu would have taken over on their own 48-yard line.

instead, concordia responded. On 3rd and four from their own 47 yard line and smsu still with one timeout, they had a tough decision to make: go for the first down through the air or run the ball and risk punting but force smsu to use their final timeout.

first year head coach ryan williams went for the first down in a high percentage fashion: a screen pass from his two reliable seniors: ohm and campbell. The smsu pass rush went hard after ohm, allowing campbell to be open near the line of scrimmage. Campbell caught the ball to the right of the line, evaded a few mustang defenders and sprinted down the sideline for the 53-yard score.

the touchdown gave cu a 12-point lead, with 2:28 to play which was far from a safe advantage in such a wild game. Concordia called timeout and decided to go for a two-point converstion which ohm delivered to campbell for a 14-point lead.

the mustangs answered by driving 60-yards in 9-plays in under a minute and a half to close the gap to seven points with 1:05 remaining.

but the smsu onside kick was recovered by sophomore mike willett (woodbury, minn.) and concordia was able to kneel out the clock for the victory.

while concordia out-gained smsu 751-487 in offense on the day, smsu had a big day on special teams. The mustangs returned eight kickoffs for an average of 36.9 yards which forced the golden bears to kickoff out of bounds intentionally to avoid the mustang return game.

on the day, smsu had an average starting field position at their own 47-yard line while concordia averaged starting at their own 20-yard line. The mustangs were 7-8 in the red zone with six touchdowns and a field goal while concordia only needed to get in the red zone twice all day for a touchdown and a 26-yard fourth quarter field goal by freshman tom obarski (burnsville, minn.).

obarski finished the season 9-12 on field goals, hitting all three inside of 30-yards and converting 8-9 inside of 50.

defensively, senior linebackers al quaye (brooklyn park, minn.) and taylor selby (stratford, wis.) led concordia with seven tackles each. Selby added another tackle for loss to finish the year 20.5 while he added four hurries and a pair of pass breakups. Quaye hurried peschong three times and had one pass breakup. He finished the year with his first 100-tackle performance (102) and his 319 career tackles ranked fourth in school history.

smsu's defense was led by tate bunkers' 15 tackles, a game-high, while phil breidall had 10 stops. Jacob levtzow had a sack on ohm for a safety in the first quarter.

gilbert was not concordia's only 100-yard receiver as redshirt freshman cordell smith (right, mequon, wis.) had his first career 100-yard day and only needed two long touchdowns of 40 and 60 yards to do it. Junior tre mason (league city, texas) was close with three catches for 87 yards and a score from 66 yards out in the first quarter.

concordia was the last team to score 60 or more points on smsu, back in 2004 in a 63-21 win over the mustangs at griffin stadium. The last time concordia scored 60 or more points was in a 2005 win over minnesota crookston (73-13) in which they set the school records for total offense (758) and rushing yards (459).

while concordia won their final three games of the season and four of their last five; smsu did the opposite by dropping their last three and four of their last five.

photos courtesy: ted schwerzler