ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (2-6 NSIC, 1-3 South) held on for a 37-34 overtime victory over Upper Iowa (5-3 NSIC, 1-3 South) on Saturday afternoon despite leading 31-10 at the half.

Senior kicker/punter Tom Obarski tied his own school record for the fourth time by hitting three field goals in the game, including the game-tying and game-winning field goals. He's now made 15 on the season, breaking the single season record of 13 set by Steven King in 2009. He's now made 41 in his career, extending a record he came into the season with. His big day was supplemented by a 41.0 punting average on seven punts and three kickoff touchbacks on seven kickoffs.

Defensively, Jimmy Mireri had the impact performance as his 90-yard kickoff return for touchdown gave Concordia a 21-10 lead in the second quarter. He also had three pass breakups including a fourth quarter deep route to shut down an Upper Iowa scoring chance. But his interception with 1:12 to play at the Concordia 38 yard line stopped Upper Iowa's game-winning drive, setting up a regulation game winning attempt from 37 yards by Obarski that missed wide right.


CU Football vs. Upper Iowa 10.25.2014 - Images by Justin Oakman

Although Obarski missed the regulation game winner, the Concordia defense held the Peacocks to a 3-and-out on the opening drive of overtime and UIU kicker Tim Rueb missed his first field goal attempt of the day from 39 yards after making two earlier. The Rueb miss set-up another shot for Obarski as he converted from 42 yards out for the overtime victory.

Obarski's miss was just the second of the season and snapped a string of 14-straight makes. His game-tying field goal was from 56-yards, which ties the second longest of his career as his first-ever field goal for the Golden Bears was from 56-yards at Minot State in 2011. He's also converted from 59 yards as a sophomore in 2012 against Augustana.

While the game had a close finish with only the two Obarski field goals scored in the fourth quarter and overtime, the first three quarters couldn't have been played differently.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Ben Schramski made his second career start but his first at home and with 5:51 to play in the opening quarter, Schramski lofted a touchdown on a 1-play drive from 40 yards out to sophomore Sammy Baucham. Schramski added a 5-yard keeper touchdown run which capped a 13-play, 96-yard drive that covered 6:56 of game time and gave Concordia a 14-0 lead with 11:02 to play in the first half.

Upper Iowa struck back quickly with a 69-yard touchdown pass and a short field goal drive before Concordia scored three more times, two touchdowns and a field goal, to close out the half with a 24-point second quarter.

Concordia put up 262 yards of total offense in the first half behind Schramski, out-pacing the Peacocks who had 199 yards.

In the third quarter, the Peacocks matched Concordia's 24-points from the second quarter by putting up the same number while shutting Concordia out.

The Peacocks defense solved Concordia's offense, holding the Golden Bears to 105 yards of total offense in the second half and overtime. Meanwhile, UIU quarterback Cole Jaeschke topped 200 passing yards in each half, finishing with 445 for the game on 38-for-59 passing. He targeted Derek Giesking and Shay Gutman heavily as Giesking had 15 catches for 120 yards and Gutman had 12 catches for 152 yards. Tight end Lucas Hefty added five catches for 99 yards as well.

But Concordia took Upper Iowa's rushing attack away completely as the Peacocks rushed 27 times for 33 yards with Evan Dornik's 25 yards on 11 carries leading the team.

Junior linebacker Josh Trifunov led Concordia's defense with 14 tackles, 12 solo and three for loss while adding three hurries. Linebackers Nick Jauch and Jordan Halverson each added sacks as well.

Concordia's offense was led by Schramski as he finished the day with 209 yards passing, completing 17 of his 29 attempts while only taking one sacks. He found seven different targets led by senior Cordell Smith with six catches for 66 yards while finding Steven Hagan twice late in the game for 32 yards.

Tre Spears rushed 27 times for 71 yards including a 19-yard touchdown while Darius Chapes added 66 yards on four attempts including breaking free for a 60-yard run late in the second quarter that set-up an Obarski field goal just before the end of the half.

As a team, Concordia rushed for 158 yards on 45 attempts to dominate the ground game as UIU dominated the air with 445-209.

Concordia finished the game with 33:59 of time of possession to UIU's 26:01 and the teams were even in points off turnovers, with three each as the turnover battle was even at two.

Concordia returns to the road next Saturday, November 1 with a 1 p.m. kickoff at Southwest Minnesota State at the Regional Events Center in Marshall, Minn.