A Perfect Homecoming Touchdown Parade
MOORHEAD, Minn. (10/13/12)—No.25-ranked Concordia scored touchdowns on seven straight possessions starting in the middle of first quarter and went on to hammer Hamline 63-14. The Cobbers racked up over 300 rushing yards as they posted a win in the annual Homecoming game.
The 63 points scored by Concordia is the most in a single game since the 2002 season when the Cobbers beat St. Thomas 63-21 in the final game of the year.
Click here to view time lapse video of entire game
The win puts Concordia back on the winning track and puts them in a three-team logjam for second place in the MIAC standings with teams with only one conference loss. The Cobbers are now 3-1 in league play and 5-1 overall. Hamline loses for the fifth straight game and falls to 1-5 overall and 0-5 in the MIAC.
Concordia was forced to punt in the shadow of its own end zone on the first possession of the game but then rolled through the Hamline defense. The Cobbers put together drives of 76, 51, 63, 49, 25, 33 and then returned a kickoff for 84 yards to take a 49-7 lead late in the third quarter.
The Cobbers rushing game proved to be the main force for the win while the passing attack accounted for three quick scores. CC rushed the ball 43 times and gained 303 yards. The passing game had only nine attempts but had scoring strikes of 38, 43 and 8 yards.
Cobber senior fullback Brett Baune had 92 rushing yards on 11 carries and scored twice. Baune now has eight touchdowns on the season and 29 for his career. He needs only four more to break the school's all-time record of 33 held by current head coach Terry Horan.
Concordia quarterback Griffin Neal came away with his second three-TD game of the season. All his scoring strike came in the second quarter. He opened the trio with a 38-yard scoring pass to Mark Whiting on a look-away fade in the second quarter then hit Brett Harmelink on a 43-yard go route up the middle and finally found senior Mike Starke in the back of the end zone on an 8-yard strike.
Neal finished the day 4-for-8 for 110 yards and did not have an interception on the day.
Ben Wolf, Seth Lage, Mitch Tauer and Alex McLean accounted for the other Cobber scores. Wolf, Tauer and McLean had rushing touchdowns and Lage had an 84-yard kickoff return. The kickoff return TD was only the second for a Cobber player since 2007.
The Cobber defense limited Hamline to only 156 total offensive yards. Concordia also held the Pipers to only 14.3% (2-for-14) on third-down situations, came away with four sacks and forced three fumbles.
Jordan Doschadis had one of the best games of his career as he had a game-high 9.0 tackles and 2.0 sacks. He also had 4.5 tackles for a loss. Nick Leen and Paul Streich both had a forced fumble and a fumble recovery and Kyle Owings came up with the fumble recovery.
Concordia will now head to Minneapolis for a showdown with another second-place team in the MIAC. The Cobbers will play at Augsburg on Saturday, Oct. 20 at 1 p.m.
