Hail Mary Drama

Moorhead, Minn. (9/19/15) --- The marquee matchup of the conference certainly lived up to the hype on Saturday afternoon. Concordia fell at the hands No. 8-ranked of St. John's 24-16 in a wild game laced with drama.

It was St. John's who got on the board first. After Concordia went three-and-out on their first possession the Johnnies got great field position at the Cobber 40-yard line. All-American halfback Sam Sura pounded his way down to the Concordia 16 on four straight carries. On the fifth play of the drive Nick Martin connected with tight end Nick Simon who made a one-handed snag for the Johnnie touchdown. The 16-yard strike capped off a five-play drive that gave St. John's a 7-0 lead with 11:06 to play in the first quarter.

The Johnnies got the ball back with 4:07 to go in the opening quarter and set up shop from their own ten-yard line. St. John's would continue to utilize Sura, who finished a 90-yard drive with a five-yard touchdown run pushing the lead to 14-0. Sura rushed for 45 yards on nine carries including the touchdown run.

Concordia would respond on the next possession. From their own 37, quarterback Alex Grove guided the Cobbers into Johnnie territory. Grove kept the drive alive with an eight-yard scamper on a pivotal 3^rd and six. After lofting a 16-yard pass to Jon Baune, Grove squeezed his way in on a designed sneak cutting the deficit to 14-7 after the Dominic Neameyer point after.

After forcing a three-and-out, the Cobbers retained possession of the ball but a fumble by Grove on a 2^nd and 11 would prove costly. The Johnnies would continue to hand the ball off to Sura, who completed a nine play, 70-yard drive with a leaping touchdown from the three-yard line giving St. John's a 21-7 lead. The Blue Earth, Minn. native was heavily utilized in the first half, carrying the ball 21 times for 110 yards.

With 1:22 to play in the half, the Cobbers had a chance to put six on the board. Jason Montonye took the ensuing kickoff 31 yards down the sideline to the Johnnie 44. Grove quickly went to work completing five passes, including a 14-yard swing pass to Chad Johnson to the St. John's five-yard line. With just 6.1 seconds remaining on the clock, head coach Terry Horan opted to bring on the field goal unit rather than come away with an empty possession. Neameyer hit the chip shot 22-yard field goal making it 21-10 at half.

Both teams stalled on their first few possessions in the third quarter. St. John's came into the game a perfect 8-of-8 on fourth down conversions, but a failed 4^th and nine at the Cobber 22 turned it over. Concordia got the ball back with 4:17 in the third and on the opening play of the drive Grove let his star go make a play. Brandon Zylstra streaked down the near sideline and made a tremendous jump ball grab for 38 yards into Johnnie territory.

Grove would cap a drive an eight minute drive that went 78 yards on 16 plays with a one-yard rushing touchdown. Neameyer would miss the extra-point, however, making it 21-16 Johnnies with 10:49 to play.

St. John's started the following drive from their own 25 and moved their way into Concordia territory. Martin completed two key passes on the drive, the first being a 13-yard connection to Simon on a 3^rd and 8 and the other a 15-yard strike to Reid Bjorklund that brought the Johnnies down inside the 30. Kicker Alexi Johnson came up big when the drive stalled. Johnson drilled a 42-yard field goal pushing St. John's lead to 24-16 with 5:27 remaining on the clock.

The Cobbers had 68 yards of turf in front of them with 5:27 to play. After a nine-yard completion to Montonye, Concordia faced a critical fourth and inches. Sophomore Michael Herzog bullied his way for a two-yard gain keeping the drive alive. Grove led the Cobbers down to the St. John's 22 before Concordia took a timeout with 1:33 remaining.

Out of the timeout Concordia designed a reverse wide receiver pass. Zylstra took the reverse towards the Johnnie sideline and threw towards the end zone intended for Baune but it fell into the hands of Lucas Glomb for an interception and what appeared to be the end of the game.

St. John's would need to pick up one first down forcing Concordia to burn all their timeouts but the Cobber defense came up with a huge stop. On 2^nd and six, Martin fumbled the snap for a loss of three aiding Concordia. A 31-yard punt from Griffin Toomey gave the Cobbers excellent field position and one last chance from the Johnnie 46 with 31 seconds to play.

Grove had been battling a knee injury for the majority of the game and was slammed to the turf on the second play of the drive. He was assisted off the field and backup quarterback Michael Herzog was called upon.

After taking no warm up throws, Herzog launched a 42-yard hail-mary strike to Zylstra for the apparent Cobber touchdown. A passing interference call was made erasing the big play.

With 11 ticks on the clock, Herzog connected with Zylstra again, this time for 36 yards down to the Johnnie 21. With no timeouts, the offense sprinted to the line and attempted to quick spike the ball stopping the clock. One member of the offense lined up offside inducing a 10-second runoff on the clock ending the game giving the Johnnies a wild 24-16 victory.

GUTSY FOOTBALL: Alex Grove battled through an evident knee injury for the majority of the game. In his first MIAC test, the junior went 17-for-26 for 188 yards passing on practically one leg. He scampered for several first downs when plays broke down and kept his team in the game.

FOURTH AND LONG: Coming into today's game, St. John's perfect 8-for-8 conversion rate on fourth down was tops in the nation for a team with that many attempts. Concordia came into the game 4-for-4, and managed to go 5-for-5 on fourth down.

STEPPING UP WHEN CALLED UPON: After not having thrown a warm up pass, Michael Herzog came in when Grove went down and completed pass of 42 and 36 yards, respectively, though the 42-yard completion was erased due to the penalty.. The Detroit Lakes native finds ways to contribute game in and game out.

QUOTABLE: "My mentality going in was just get the ball to the end zone and let my teammates make a play on the ball." – Michael Herzog discussing the last two plays of the game.

BYE BYE BYE: Senior linebacker Erik Bye answered the bell on Saturday. The senior was involved in most plays, as he recorded 17 tackles, four of them solo.

SANDY ISLAND: Senior cornerback Alex Sandahl started for the second consecutive game and made it count. Sandahl, who also plays baseball at Concordia, recorded 11 tackles, seven of them being solo.

OH SO CLOSE: Head coach Terry Horan will have to wait one more week to reach the 100 win plateau for his brilliant coaching career. He could potentially reach the milestone next Saturday, September 26, when the team travels to St. Olaf.

FORESHADOWING? Last season Concordia went to Collegeville on the MIAC's opening weekend and defeated the Johnnies 31-21. It was St. John's only loss in MIAC play and the Johnnies went on to win the conference championship with a 7-1 mark in the MIAC.

WHAT'S NEXT? Concordia will travel to take on St. Olaf in another intense rivalry game next weekend. The "Battle for the Troll" has been featured on ESPN's College Gameday and is another MIAC's rivalry game.