Baune Bashes TD Record And Gusties
ST. PETER, Minn. (11/10/12)—Concordia scored 22 unanswered points and Brett Baune became the school's all-time touchdown leader as the Cobbers beat Gustavus 29-10 in the final game of the regular season.
Concordia (8-2/6-2 MIAC) kicked a field goal just before the half to tie the game at 10-10 and then went on a 19-point run in the second half to earn their eighth win of the year. The eight overall wins are the most since the 2005 season.
Besides the "must" win as a team, the other huge news on the day was the scoring prowess of Baune. He scored all three of Concordia's touchdowns in the second half to push his career total to 34 and break the old mark of 33 held by current head coach Terry Horan. Baune scored on a pair of 4-yard runs and tacked on a bulldozing 1-yard plunge to push the game from a 10-10 nailbiter to a 29-10 romp. Baune also eclipsed a rushing yardage milestone in the first half. He finished the day with 77 yards on 19 carries and ended the regular season with 1,050 total rushing yards. He becomes the first CC back to reach the 1,000-yard mark for a single season since 2008 when Cory Johnson rushed for 1,001 yards.
The key behind the win over the Gusties came from the Cobbers' "Black Shirt" defense ability to get off the field after third down in the second half. Gustavus was 4-for-7 on third down conversions in the first half and then the CC defense limited GAC to just 1-for-7 in the second half of play.
The other key was Concordia's ability to hold on to the ball. The Cobbers did not commit a turnover in the game and had a total of 34:48 in time of possession. Overall, CC gained 420 yards of total offense which included 302 on the ground. Besides the 77 yards from Baune's record-setting performance, Ben Wolf rushed for a game-high 95 yards on nine carries. He also scored Concordia's other TD on the day. It came on the team's first possession of the game and was a 13-yard scoring run. Wolf has now scored one TD in three of the team's last five games.
CC quarterback Griffin Neal rushed for 59 yards on 12 carries. Neal also threw for 118 yards and completed 12 of the 17 passes he attempted. He did not throw an interception in the game and has strung together three straight games without throwing a "pick".
The Cobber defense allowed just 71 rushing yards in four quarters and finished with just 301 total offensive yards given up. Peter Hvidston finished with a team-high 8.0 tackles on the day and also accounted for Concordia's lone sack of the afternoon. Jordan Doschadis and Brent Rysdahl both had 7.0 tackles and 1.0 pass break ups.
