Do You Recall St. Paul In The Fall, Oh What A Place....

ST. PAUL, Minn. (10/26/24)--- You'll have to forgive Concordia if they were belting out the Wayne Newton classic "Danke Schoen" as they rolled away from Macalester on Saturday. If you recall, St. Paul in the fall, oh what a place...

For the second straight weekend, the Cobbers traveled to St. Paul and for the second straight weekend, the Cobbers came away with a convincing victory.

The Concordia offense scored on five of its first six possessions against Macalester, put the first 44 points on the board against the Scots and rolled to a 44-7 win.

The Cobbers finished their back-to-back treks to St. Paul by outscoring Hamline and Macalester by a combined total of 85-14.

The win over the Scots ups Concordia's overall record to 5-2 on the season. CC is 4-1 against MIAC opponents and 2-0 in divisional play.

Concordia's opening possession of the game was the only one they didn't score on in the first half of play. After the Cobbers were held to a "3 and out", CC rattled off a field goal and then five straight touchdowns to take a 37-0 lead into the halftime break.

Like the first half, Concordia stumbled on the opening drive of the second half but then finished off their scoring on the day by going on a 6-play, 53-yard drive that culminated in a Gunner Martinek 2-yard run.

Macalester (0-7, 0-5 MIAC) scored on its final drive of the fourth quarter to bring the score to 44-7.

Concordia outgained the Scots 493-188 in total offensive yards and most of that total came via the pass for CC. The Cobbers finished with 347 passing yards and 146 rushing yards against Macalester.

Cobber senior quarterback Cooper Mattern was 20-for-29 for 331 yards and had a pair of touchdown tosses on the day.

It is the second time in the last three games that Mattern has thrown for over 300 yards in a game. He now has 1,581 passing yards for the season. He also has 5,558 passing yards for his career which is 54 yards away from tying the school record of 5,612 yards set by Griffin Neal from 2011-14.    

Mattern also hurt the Scots with his legs as he rushed for a game-high 85 yards and one TD on nine carries.

Mattern had two main targets in the scoring stretch in the first half and the start of the second. Senior Owen Miller caught five passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns, while Davion Henderson had five receptions for 147 yards.

It's the first time for both receivers to finish with over 100 receiving yards in a game this year. Miller leads the Cobbers in receiving this year with 27 catches for 345 yards and six touchdowns.

Mason Hughes had the other offensive score for Concordia in St. Paul. He rambled in from 3 yards out to score the first touchdown of the day for CC.

Senior defensive back Stuart DeMerit came away with the biggest defensive play of the day for the Cobbers. He jumped an out route in the 28-point second quarter and raced 33 yards to the end zone for his first career "Pick 6". DeMerit now has seven career interceptions which ranks No.14 on the school's all-time list.

Concordia's defense limited Macalester to only 85 passing yards and a 2-of-13 conversion rate on third-down plays.

The Black Shirts have allowed more than one touchdown in only two of their seven games this season.
 
Ryan Weber led the Cobber "Black Shirt" defense with 8.0 total tackles.

The Black Shirts also came up with another interception and four sacks on the day. Jaiden Musse picked off his team-leading third pass of the year and Ethan Larson, Connor Panapa, Hayden Netland and Brody Turner all came away with a single sack for the game.

Concordia will return home to start a 2-game home stand. The Cobbers will host Augsburg on Nov. 2 and Bethel on Nov. 9 to finish off the MIAC regular season.