Game 2 Preview: Concordia at Buena Vista

Last Week:
Last week Concordia scored on its first five possessions, raced to a 32-0 halftime lead and beat Jamestown 39-14. Cobber quarterback Griffin Neal threw for 303 yards becoming only the fourth QB in the history of Concordia football to pass for more than 300 yards in a single game.

The Cobbers outgained the Jimmies 500-288 in total offense. Concordia also forced a pair of turnovers which led to 10 points. CC had 197 rushing yards and had over a 4:00-minute edge in time of possession.

Buena Vista lost their season opener 42-17 to No.11-ranked UW-Platteville. The Beavers got behind 14-0 early in the first quarter but then cut the lead to 14-10 in the second quarter. After that it was all Pioneers as they rattled 14 straight points before halftime and then outscored BVU 14-0 in the second half.

Buena Vista was outgained 518-242 in total offense which included 273 rushing yards by Platteville. The Beavers turned the ball over three times and came away with a pair of Pioneer miscues. The other key stat in the game came on third down conversions. UW-Platteville was 8-for-14 on third down attempts which led to a 34:08 time of possession. 

Pick 6 - 6 Items To Help You Take It To The House:
1. Concordia enters Saturday's game 1-0 on the season and has now won seven straight home openers. It also marks the ninth time in CC head coach Terry Horan's 13-year career that the team has won the season opener. Keeping with the "glass is half full" theme, the Cobbers have won their first two games of the year in four of the past six seasons.   

2. Concordia quarterback Griffin Neal, who was named the MIAC Offensive Player of the Week, is coming off a 303-yard passing game against Jamestown in the season opener. He is only the fourth quarterback in school history to throw for over 300 yards in a single game. Give yourself a pat on the back if you knew that Ethan Pole, Ryan Hebrink and Michael Dunham were the other three signal callers to throw for $3 bills. Dunham was the last QB to go over the 300 mark when he threw for 329 yards vs. St. Thomas in 2011. Pole's total of 386 passing yards vs. Augsburg is still the school record.  

3. The Cobbers had 21 players make at least one tackle in their season-opening win over Jamestown. The Concordia "Black Shirts" were led by defensive backs Bryce Hentges and Nathan Boie who both had 7.0 total tackles. The defense also created a pair of first-half turnovers in the game. Both miscues led to points for CC.

4. The "Wagner Watch" is still going strong. Concordia senior kicker Ben Wagner connected on all four of his extra point attempts against Jamestown and has now made 48 straight PATs. That is a school record. In case you are wondering about the NCAA Division III record for consecutive extra points - think Ohio and the color purple. Mount Union kicker Mike Zimmerman made a crisp 142 straight PATs from 2006-07. Think Ben would want to come back for three more years?    

5. The Cobber road trip to Storm Lake will cover a cool 394 miles - one way. The 788 round-trip affair is a part of a monster travel weekend for Cobber athletic teams. The longest trip of the weekend belongs to the volleyball team which will play in Tacoma, Wash. That round trip is a quick 2,880 miles. Besides that half-country jaunt by Tim Mosser's crew, the men's soccer team plays at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisc. (1,206 miles roundtrip), the women's soccer squad plays at UW-Eau Claire (650) while the women's golf team competes at The Jewel GC in Northfield, Minn. (550) and the men's golf team is in St. Cloud (340). The shortest trip belongs to the cross country teams who run at the Ponderosa GC in Glyndon which is a scant 18 miles for the round trip. All told, the eight Cobber fall sports teams will travel 6,450 miles to compete in games, matches and meets. Can you say budget buster?      

6. Seven MIAC football teams opened their 2013 campaigns over the weekend, and all seven were victorious. The hot start matches the league's week-one record from a season ago, as the league ran out to a 13-0 record against nonconference foes and a 16-2 mark overall outside conference play. Besides the Cobbers' victory over the Jimmies, The MIAC received wins from Augsburg, Carleton, Hamline, Saint John's St. Olaf and St. Thomas Friday and Saturday.
     

Last Year:
Last year Concordia fullback Brett Baune pounded his way to a single-game school record 258 rushing yards and the Cobbers rolled to a 38-14 win at home over Buena Vista.

Baune's dominating performance helped Concordia amass 634 total offensive yards – the second most in program history and only the second time that the Cobbers have ever gone over the 600-yard mark. 

Baune finished the day by averaging 10.3 yards per carry on 25 carries. Baune's biggest run of the day came on his only TD. He took a handoff on 4th-and-1 and turned it into a game-ending 50-yard run to the end zone. Baune's score turned a 24-14 game into a 17-point advantage that broke the back of Buena Vista's comeback attempt.

Concordia took a 14-0 lead into halftime and then widened the gap to 24-6 at the end of the third quarter. Buena Vista scored 8-seconds into the fourth period to cut the lead to 24-14. The Beavers renewed life was then put to rest when Baune ripped through the line on the crucial 4th-down situation and went untouched for 50 yards.

In addition to Baune's 250-plus yards on the ground, quarterback Griffin Neal rushed for 93 yards and one TD and back-up QB Mitch Tauer ran for 79 yards, including a 46-yard scoring scamper. Luke Gotta recorded the other rushing TD for CC. He had 49 total rushing yards on 10 carries.

The biggest statistical advantages beside the total offensive yards (634-240) came in time of possession and number of plays run. The Cobbers held the ball for 40:29 of the 60 minutes of play. CC also ran 33 more plays than the Beavers in the game.

The Concordia defense held BVU to 93 rushing yards and 147 passing yards. The Cobbers were led by Bryce Hentges, Matt Moenkedick and Paul Streich. Hentges and Moenkedick both had a team-high five tackles and and Streich came away with 2.0 sacks and 2.5 tackles for a loss.
           

Cobbers vs. Beavers Series History: