Football | 9.25.14

ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Saturday at noon, Concordia-St. Paul will host Minnesota Crookston in a battle of two 0-3 squads for Concordia's homecoming game at Sea Foam Stadium. The game features a live webcast, in-game live stats and a live NSIC scoreboard.

THIS WEEK: HOMECOMING 2014, MAKEOVER EDITION!
Concordia-St. Paul will host Minnesota Crookston in the 2014 homecoming game for the Golden Bears at Sea Foam Stadium. Concordia is 1-2 on homecoming under fourth year head coach Ryan Williams including a homecoming win over Upper Iowa (35-6) in Williams' second season as head coach in 2012. Concordia is in its sixth season at Sea Foam Stadium, hoding a 1-4 record in five previous homecoming games.

This year's Homecoming, Makeover Edition theme will be relevant during pregame as the team mascot, Comet, has a surprise when the team rushes the field at approximately 10 minutes prior to kickoff - don't miss the big reveal!

SERIES HISTORY: CONCORDIA 10, UM CROOKSTON 3
The Golden Bears have captured nine consecutive wins over Minnesota Crookston dating back to UMC's last win in 2001 which was played in Crookston. The Golden Bears are 3-0 in home games against UMC, 2-0 under head coach Ryan Williams and 1-0 in the only meeting between the schools at Sea Foam Stadium in 2011 (38-20). Concordia's largest margin of victory against UMC was a 60-point, 73-13 win in 2005 at Griffin Stadium during Concordia's last NSIC Championship season. The Golden Bears then posted back-to-back shutouts of UMC in 2006 and 2007 at the Metrodome.

LAST MEETING: 2012, CONCORDIA 34, UMC 24
On a windy, gloomy day in Northern Minnesota, Concordia found itself trailing 16-3 at the half to the host Golden Eagles. But halftime adjustments allowed Concordia to rattle off three consecutive second half touchdowns en route to a 34-24 win.

Tre Spears, a sophomore at the time, produced his second straight 100-yard rushing game to open the season as Concordia improved to 1-1. He rushed for 187 yards including a 31-yard go-ahead fourth quarter touchdown run. He averaged 7.5 yards on 25 carries in the game.

The Golden Bears had success on the ground with 238 team rushing yards on 39 attempts, a 6.1 average.

Quarterback James Peterson persisted in the tough conditions, completing 9-10 for 129 yards and two touchdowns in the second half to spark the team's comeback win. Peterson also scored on the ground in the second half. He was just 3-10 passing for -2 yards in the first half.

He found Tre Mason twice on one drive for a 32 and 22 yard connection including a 22-yard touchdown, and hooked up with Cordell Smith three times in the game for 43 yards including a 7-yard touchdown connection in the fourth quarter.

UMC also found success on the ground as Richard Haley rushed 24 times for 186 yards and quarterback AJ Barge had 10 carries for 59 yards. UMC rushed for 303 yards on 45 carries.

The biggest factor of the day came in the red zone, where Concordia converted all four trips into points, while UMC was just 2-6 putting points on the board in the red zone.

Jordan Halverson led the defense with 14 tackles, 3.0 for loss and a blocked kick while Denzell Blackmon had a fumble recovery return for 29 yards and an interception return for 21 yards. Zach Moore added a pair of sacks and a 4th and 1 stop.

LAST WEEK: U-MARY 20, CONCORDIA 13
For the third straight game to open the 2014 season, Concordia fell by a margin of 7-points, this time on the road on a windy day in Bismarck, N.D. at the hands of the University of Mary.

The Golden Bears trailed by 15 points, 18-3, well into the fourth quarter when defense started forcing the Marauders to punt quickly on a number of consecutive drives. A punt from U-Mary's own 25 yard line went out of bounds at the line of scrimmage as the Marauders were forced to punt into the stiff 30-mph wind.

That set up the offense for success, and eight plays later Jared Russo found Tre Spears on a 3-yard touchdown pass to cut the margin to eight points - a one score game with just over six minutes to play.

After another defensive stop, this time at the U-Mary 26 yard line with over three minutes to play, the Golden Bears fumbled the punt return with U-Mary recovering at the Concordia 37-yard line. The defense again came through, but the Marauders were able to pin Concordia on its own 1-yard line. On the next play, a holding penalty in the end zone awarded U-Mary two points on a safety to extend the lead back to a two-score game, 20-10 with 2:35 to play and Concordia kicking from its own 20.

A successful onside kick from Tom Obarski gave the Golden Bears late life as the team drove down to the U-Mary 4-yard line as Russo completed 5-6 for 50 yards and had a 16 yard scramble.
Obarski delivered the field goal with four seconds left, allowing enough time for  an onside kick and potential hail mary. But this time the kick bounced out of bounds as U-Mary held on.

Russo had a successful day throwing the ball, completing 24-42 for 180 yards with another eight passes dropped by his receivers. But the running game was also stagnant, putting up 61 yards on 20 attempts.

Tre Spears led the offense with 12 rushes for 42 yards and six catches for 26 yards and a touchdown. Cordell Smith added five catches for 41 yards and Sammy Baucham had four receptions for 37 yards.

The defense once again held the opposition to a sub-300 yard day of total offense as U-Mary had 263 yards as a team including just 96 through the air. Jordan Halverson led the team with 13 tackles while Nick Jauch had nine tackles, three for loss and a sack. The defense produced 10 tackles for loss and three sacks, adding an interception from Jimmy Mireri.

HEAD COACH RYAN WILLIAMS
The Golden Bears are led by third year head coach Ryan Williams. Prior to being named head coach, Williams had served as offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator for the previous six seasons at Concordia. He is a Wayzata, Minn. native and played collegiately as starting quarterback and team captain at former Division II-power North Dakota State from 1997-2000.

With a 13-23 career record, Williams is 2-0 against Minnesota Crookston. He is 6-9 in his career against the NSIC North.

MEET THE 2014 TEAM CAPTAINS
The 2014 team captains are senior Abdullah Asad (SS, Chicago) and junior Jordan Halverson (LB, Fridley, Minn.) on defense and seniors Cordell Smith (WR, Mequon, Wis.) and Tre Spears (RB, Chicago) on offense.

Today's honorary captain is Anthony LeMay (WR, 1998-2001), a hometown player from Highland Park High School. LeMay finished his career with Concordia hauling in 28 catches for 418 yards and four touchdowns over 31 career games played. More importantly, LeMay was a member of Concordia football during one of its most important periods in program history, as he played as both a Comet and a Golden Bear, helping Concordia to back-to-back third place finishes in the NSIC in 2000 and 2001 in its second and third year of Division II football. More on LeMay on page 7.

HALVERSON RETURNS TO ALL-NSIC FORM
Last season, Jordan Halverson suffered a season ending injury in week three at home against St. Cloud State. Now completely healthy, Halverson is armed with an extra year of workouts, spring football, summer and fall ball. His hard work has paid off as he voted one of the team's captains and awarded an extra year of eligiblity for medical reasons. His play has made a difference so far in 2014 as he is tied for the team lead in tackles with 32 along with fellow lineback Josh Trifunov. The tandem are currently tied for fifth in the NSIC in tackles with an average of 10.7 per game.

RUSSO RETURNS UNDER CENTER
Senior quarterback Jared Russo reclaimed the starting spot in week two due to an injury to first year starter Corey Cole, a junior and former wide receiver/kick returner.

Russo has been solid in his return under center, completing 57.1% (40-70) of his passes for 344 yards and three touchdowns to just one interception.

In his career at Concordia, Russo has passed for 3,092 yards on 54.2% passing with 27 touchdowns.

SPEARS SPRINTS PAST 2,000 YARDS RUSHING
Senior running back Tre Spears became Concordia's eighth 2,000 yard career rusher in week two against Northern State and has now rushed for 2,158 yards with 10 touchdowns. This year he's already set career-highs in the passing game with 13 catches for 75 yards after combining for 75 receiving yards the previous two seasons. He had a career-high 194 combined rushing/receiving yards in week two against Northern State including 150 on the ground.

LINEBACKERS LEAD THE CONCORDIA DEFENSE
Concordia's defense is led statistically by its linebackers as Jordan Halverson, Josh Trifunov and Nick Jauch are the top three tacklers on the team as Halverson and Trifunov lead with 32 while Jauch is tied with defensive end Dion Roche with 20. Jauch also leads the team with 6.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks while Trivunov leads the team with three pass breakups and has one of two team interceptions.

Concordia's linebackers have accounted for 9.0 tackles for loss, while the defensive line has 6.0 and the secondary has 4.0. As a unit, the Concordia defense is tied with UMD for the league lead in tackles for loss and ranks 12th in the country with 4.33 per game.

SECONDARY SHUTS DOWN OPPOSING PASSING GAMES
Concordia's secondary is ranked sixth in the nation against the pass, allowing only 111.7 passing yards per game including holding UMD and U-Mary to 82 and 96 passing yards, respectively while Northern State only passed for 157. Opposing quarterbacks have found the end zone just three times against Concordia while throwing two interceptions and only have a long of 33 downfield.

The secondary is led by senior strong safety Abdullah Asad and junior cover corner Jimmy Mireri. Asad has 15 tackles, sack and a pass breakup while Mireri has 13 tackles, a pass breakup and an interception. Marc St. Louis made his first start of the year last week at U-Mary and produced 10 tackles while Jordan Nieuwsma starts at the other corner with 12 tackles, three for loss and a sack.

CORDELL SMITH CLOSES IN ON 2,000 YARDS
While Spears has recently topped 2,000 career rushing yards and Russo has topped 3,000 passing, wide receiver Cordell Smith is closing in on 2,000 career receiving yards. He's hauled in 1,863 yards through the air, leaving him 137 shy of the 2,000 yard mark. He has 122 career receptions and has hauled in 21 touchdown receptions (22 total TD's). He's aiming to become the sixth 2,000 yard receiver in program history and currently ranks eighth in career receiving yards, fifth in touchdown catches.

OBARSKI HANDLES THE KICKING GAME
Senior Tom Obarski has been named All-NSIC as both a kicker and a punter in his Concordia career. Now a senior, he continues to excel in all three phases of kicking. His 30 career field goals is a program record, converting at a 63.8% rate (30-47), he holds the career record for punting yards (7,025) and is second in career punting average (38.81). He's also made 96-of-100 PAT's.

As a senior, he's 4-of-5 on field goals with a long of 47, he's averaging 39.4 on 15 punts while forcing three fair catches, two inside the 20 and two of 50-plus yards. He's also had four kickoff touchbacks on 11 attempts with an average starting field position at the 24-yard line.

In his career, he's 21-25 inside of 40 yards and has made nine field goals from 40-plus yards with four 50-plus yarders and a long of 59.