A Tale Of Two Halves
Concordia led #8/9 St. John's 7-3 at the half but then gave up 28 unanswered points and lost 31-7.
MOORHEAD, Minn. (11/12/16) --- It was the story of two halves on Saturday as St. John's rattled off 28 unanswered points in the second half to take down Concordia 31-7 at Jake Christiansen Stadium.
The Cobbers went into the half with a 7-3 lead. Junior fullback Chad Johnson found a hole up the middle and weaved his way 36 yards to the end zone to get the Cobbers on the board.
A 23-yard field goal from Alexi Johnson put the Johnnies on the board in the first half.
Concordia outgained the Johnnies 106 yards to just 88 yards in the first 30 minutes but the second half was a completely different ball game.
After a three-and-out on their first drive St. John's struck quickly. Former Cobber Adam Essler capped an eight-play, 90 yard drive with a 27-yard scoring scamper that wound up being the go-ahead touchdown.
St. John's had good field position on their next possession as they started inside Cobber territory. The Johnnies drove down inside the five-yard line and faced a fourth and inches and they decided to go for it.
Sophomore quarterback Ben Alvord attempted an option to the right side but Hank Van Liew sniffed out the play to force the turnover on downs.
Concordia was forced to punt after going three-and-out and SJU wasted little time extending their lead. Alvord found Jared Streit on the near sideline and the sophomore tight end tip-toed his way around one defender and went untouched 32 yards to make it 17-7.
CC went three-and-out for the second straight possession and the Johnnies broke the game open on the first play of their next drive. Dusty Krueger found a seam on the right side and raced 80 yards untouched to push the lead to 24-7 with just under five minutes remaining.
The Cobbers went three-and-out yet again on their next trip and St. John's iced the game with a 28-yard connection from Alvord to big-play receiver Evan Clark.
The Johnnies outgained Concordia in total offense 298 yards to 73 yards in the second half.
NIGHTMARE ON EIGHTH STREET – Might as well rename Dusty Krueger "Freddy" because Krueger recreated the nightmare on "e(ighth)lm" street. Krueger, who had 14 rushing yards in the first half, ran over ran over the Cobber defense in the second half en route to finishing with 175 rushing yards on 26 carries while finding the end zone twice. He had over half of SJU's total offense in the second half as he had 161 of the 298 yards in the second 30 minutes.
FIELD POSITION BATTLE - St. John's won the battle of field position in a landslide. The Johnnies average starting field position was at the Concordia 36-yard line while CC's average starting field position was at their own 29-yard line.
TICK TOCK - Despite the smaller field, SJU managed to dominate the time of possession. St. John's ran 65 offensive plays and held the ball for 33:24. The Johnnies average holding the ball for 33:58 of each game they play in.
NOVEMBER CHADNESS – Chad Johnson ended Saturday with 103 yards on 18 carries with one rushing score for his fourth game of 100 rushing yards or more this season. Jonson was only the second player this season to rush for more than 100 yards against the Johnnies. In two games this month Johnson racked up 219 rushing yards with three scores.
HANK THE TANK – Hank Van Liew went out in style in his final collegiate game. The senior from Snoqualmie, Wash. ended Saturday with 17 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and half a sack. Van Liew ended with 89 tackles - which is second on the team.
TIP OF THE iceBERG – Sophomore Alex Berg finished his stellar second-year campaign with eight tackles against the Johnnies - which gives him a team-high 94 on the season. If Berg were to keep this pace up he would potentially wind up with 282 tackles for his career - which would place him in the top six in Concordia history.
WINNING SENIORS – The 17 graduating seniors ended their Cobber football careers with a 30-10 (.750) overall record. The class of 2016-17 went 8-2 for their first two seasons and 7-3 in their final two years.
NERD STAT – Fifth-year senior Nick Anderson has the most wins of any Cobber football player in program history. The Lisbon, N.D. product finished his Cobber career by going 38-12 (.760).
CONCORDIA vs. ST. JOHN'S HIGHLIGHTS
