FAYETTE, Iowa - Concordia-St. Paul (1-5 NSIC, 0-2 South) was unable to spoil Upper Iowa's (4-2 NSIC, 1-1 South) homecoming as the Peacocks defeated the Golden Bears 52-20 on Saturday night at Harms-Eischeid Stadium.
The Golden Bears return home to Sea Foam Stadium next Saturday, October 17 for a noon kickoff against #1 Minnesota State (6-0 NSIC, 2-0 South). ESPN College GameDay will have a camera and audio crew on-site for footage of
Hank Goff in preparation for a Veteran's Day feature segment on the Saturday, November 7 airing of GameDay. Goff had one of six Concordia sacks in tonight's game and has two on the season.
Upper Iowa had 598 yards of total offense on 95 plays including 460 yards through the air, leading to 31 first downs as the Peacocks converted 8-16 on third down. The Peacocks also had a 36:17 to 23:43 advantage in time of possession.
Concordia had just 120 yards of offense on 50 plays with eight first downs on 2-12 third down conversions. But a big day on special teams allowed the Golden Bears to tally 211 combined kick and punt return yards along with three turnovers forced by the defense to shorten the field.
Alquawn Vickers put Concordia on the scoreboard in the first quarter for the first time this season with a 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown following his fumbled punt that set up Upper Iowa's second touchdown.
Vickers had 188 all-purpose yards on the day including an NSIC single game season high 146 kickoff return yards, averaging 48.7 on his three kick returns. He also had three punt returns for 36 yards and a six yard reception. He leads the league in kick return yards by over 300 with 670 with the next closest at 358. His 1,035 all-purpose yards also lead the league by nearly 200 yards with the next closest at 859.
Later in the quarter,
Jackson Dobbs and
Chazz Roberts teamed up for a strip-sack with Dobbs recovering the fumble on the UIU 9-yard line.
On the next play,
Darius Chapes carried up the middle for his second touchdown of the season. He finished with 35 rushing yards on eight carries to lead the offense. The point after was blocked as Upper Iowa kept a slim 1-point lead, 14-13 with 3:14 to play in the quarter.
The Peacocks tacked on one more touchdown for a 21-13 lead at the quarter break and extended the advantage to 31-13 late in the second quarter.
Late in the second quarter,
Jordan Halverson forced and recovered a fumble deep in UIU territory. Once again, on the next play the Golden Bears found the end zone as
Ben Schramski rolled to his right and found
Sammy Baucham for a 15-yard score, cutting the score to 31-20 at the half.
Concordia wouldn't get closer, however as the Peacocks scored a pair of touchdowns in the third quarter and another in the fourth for the 52-20 win.
The two fumble recoveries were two of three turnovers forced by the defense, the other being
DeCeon Schumann's second interception of the year.
While Roberts and Dobbs had the half sack, the Golden Bear defense had six as a unit which is the third most in the NSIC in a single game in 2015.
Josh Trifunov led the group by registering three sacks, second most in the NSIC in a game this year in a game in which he had nine tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss. Trifunov is now second in the league with seven sacks and sixth in the league with eight tackles for loss. Halverson finished with 13 tackles and a tackle for loss and is now third in the league with 58 tackles and posted his fourth double-digit tackle game of the year.
Offensively,
Ben Schramski completed 11 of 29 for 93 yards and a touchdown and was sacked four times in the game. He found
Bruce Russell four times for 34 yards while Baucham had two catches for 20 yards and the score.
Upper Iowa quarterback Dimitri Morales completed 38-48 for 460 yards and five touchdowns and added 32 on the ground with a rushing touchdown.
Morales' top target was Jalen Amis with 14 catches for 151 yards and two touchdowns while Jarred Edmonds had 10 catches for 135 yards and two scores. Trey MacTaggart also topped 100 receiving yards with 112 on seven catches.
