photos courtesy: Northern State Athletics and AberdeenNews.com
ABERDEEN, S.D. - Trailing by two touchdowns with just under 12 minutes to play, the Concordia University football team (1-3) scored two unanswered touchdowns, but had their game-tying point after touchdown blocked with 34 seconds to play by Northern State (1-3). The Wolves would recover Concordia's onside kickoff attempt and run the clock out on the Golden Bears in a 24-23 Northern State win at Swisher Field on Saturday afternoon.
In a past meeting in 2005 in Aberdeen, Concordia had a blocked PAT on their second touchdown, and fumbled on a 2-point conversion later in the game, eventually losing by just one point to Northern State, 20-19.
It was a game of runs, as the Wolves scored first on a 44-yard field goal in the first quarter, with each team missing a field goal in the opening frame as well.
Concordia took their first lead early in the second quarter when
James Peterson (Blaine, Minn. ) lofted a deep touchdown pass to
Tre Mason (League City, Texas ), an 82-yard score with the ball travelling 60-plus yards in the air. It was just a 2-play drive, but spanned 87 yards and was the team's shortest scoring drive of the year at 53 seconds. Mason finished with his first career 100-yard game, with 142 yards on five catches including his second TD of the year.
The Golden Bears would extend their lead to 10-3 with a 28-yard
Tom Obarski (Burnsville, Minn. ) field goal as the half expired. The field goal drive was the opposite of their touchdown drive, lasting 5:31 as 15 plays covered 60 yards.
In the second half, Northern State defended their home field by scoring twice in the third quarter, both Mark Hanley touchdown receptions from Jared Jacobson (4 and 20 yards), and Jacobson rushed in from 13 yards out with 11:56 to play in the fourth quarter to give Northern State a 24-10 lead.
Concordia responded on their next drive, which covered nearly six minutes of clock time and was culminated with Peterson connecting with freshman
Gabe Boyce (Minnetonka, Minn.) for his first career touchdown reception from 11-yards out. It was an 11-play, 73-yard drive for the Golden Bears that brought them within a touchdown.
The defense would hold strong, forcing the Wolves to punt from the 50-yard line and the offense took over with 2:39 to play on their own 25-yard line.
On the ensuing drive, Peterson would convert a pair of key 3rd down plays, a 3rd and 1 which he rushed for three yards, and a 3rd and 12 completion to
Cordell Smith (Mequon, Wis. ) that put the Golden Bears on the NSU 7-yard line. He hooked up with Smith again on a 2nd and goal for a 7-yard touchdown strike to pull Concordia within the point that would end up being the difference. Smith finished the game tying his career-high with eight catches, adding 109 yards for his third career 100-yard game.
Peterson delivered his fourth career 300-yard passing performance, throwing for 373 yards and three touchdowns while completing 24-of-44. But he was sacked twice and intercepted three times as the Golden Bears lost the turnover battle for the second time this season. While they turned it over three times, they couldn't force any NSU miscues.
Concordia's defense did hold Northern State's run game, which entered play averaging well over 200-yards per game, to just 125 yards on 35 attempts. The defense also held NSU to 191 passing yards for a season-best 316 yard total defense effort.
The offense easily topped that total with 439 yards, but were doubled-up on in rushing yardage, producing 66 yards on 31 attempts. CU also held the time of possession edge at 32:50 to 27:10, and converted 8-of-16 on 3rd down while stopping NSU to just 2-of-12 and 1-of-3 on 4th down.
While turnovers would be costly, so would penalties as the Golden Bears were flagged 11 times for 95 yards while Northern State committed just five penalties for 59 yards.
Concordia's run game was led by
Tre Spears (Chicago, Ill. ) with 16 attempts for 52 yards while
Ronald Zollicoffer (Chicago, Ill.) and
Jason White (Davenport, Iowa) combined for 11 carries and 37 yards.
Senior
Nate Thienes (Lake Elmo, Minn. ) added 67 yards through the air on four receptions including a long of 23.
The Northern Stat eoffense was led by John Hughes on the ground with 104 yards on 15 rushing attempts. The Golden Bears held the league's second leading rusher, Jacobson, to 14 yards on 10 attempts. But he countered with 191 yards passing and two touchdowns and had the 13-yard rushing score to account for all three NSU scores. He completed 17-of-33, was not intercepted and was sacked twice.
Concordia's defense was led by
Denzell Blackmon (Chicago, Ill. ) with nine tackles, 2.0 for loss and a sack while
Jordan Halverson (Fridley, Minn. ) added seven tackles. It was Halverson's first sub-10 tackle performance of the season.
Philip Barlow (Golden Valley, Minn. ) added a sack and five tackles while the Golden Bear defense accounted for 11.0 total tackles for loss as a team. They also had seven pass breakups.
The Golden Bears have completed their non-division conference games, and although they are off to a slow 1-3 start, they can still compete for an NSIC South Division title, with the first divisional game next Saturday, September 29 at Minnesota State in Mankato, Minn. with a 2 p.m. kickoff.
