New faces in Bulldog football make waves against Doane

The Bulldogs beat the Doane University Tigers 35-7 in their season opener on Sept. 6.

Photo credit: Michaela Gibbs

By Kai Olbrich

Sports Editor

This story is featured in the September print edition of the Sower newspaper. 

The Concordia University football team started off its season on Sept. 6 with a 35-7 win over rival Doane thanks to a versatile offense and dominant defense.

The Bulldogs outplayed the Tigers in nearly every major category. Concordia had 401 yards of total offense, which broke down to 123 rushing and 278 yards passing.

Running back Carlos Collazo punched in three touchdowns, all coming from the 1-yard line. He rushed for 95 yards. Quarterback Gideon Stark linked with wide receivers Jonny Puelz and Adam Van Cleave for one touchdown apiece.

Van Cleave made a highlight reel play as he caught the ball around the 50-yard line, rode a tackle and shook off the Doane player. He darted through the middle of the field, where no one could catch him, all the way into the end zone for a 53-yard touchdown.

Van Cleave said that after surviving the first tackle attempt, everything else was just instinct.

“When I caught that pass, the one guy came from the corner, kind of surprised me, and then once we hit each other, I kind of just blacked out, and instinct took over,” Van Cleave said.

On the other side of the ball, the Concordia defense held strong and allowed just one touchdown throughout the game.

Turnovers were a big boost to the Bulldog offense. Concordia recovered 3 of 5 Doane fumbles and got two interceptions. One of those fumbles came off a kickoff. The Doane returner looked like he was going to get excellent field position, but the Bulldogs’ Jaden Seier was able to knock the ball out and Kannen Willis recovered it.

Defensive Back Will Potratz intercepted a pass at the 39-yard line and then ran it 38 yards to the 1-yard line.

In retrospect, coach Patrick Daberkow said he wishes he had thrown his challenge flag to see if Potratz was in the end zone, but it all worked out for Concordia because Collazo converted from near the goal line to secure the six points.

Defensive lineman Terry Sebek earned the Great Plains Athletic Conference defensive player of the week for his three sacks and six total tackles. The game was Sebek’s first career start as he had spent the previous two seasons on the scout team.

Daberkow said that Sebek is a great example of what can happen when a player comes in ready to work and doesn’t expect things to be given to them.

“I think that it’s a real testament to Terry and the other guys on the team who just come in and work,” Daberkow said. “It’s kind of glamorized to talk about grinding and putting in the work, but it sucks when you’re going through it. Like, you go from high school being big dogs to being a pup again, and it’s tough.”

Daberkow said not all players can handle that “but we have guys in our locker room who have embraced that and just work their tail off and it’s just fun to see them have success and earn the playing time because make no mistake, it’s earned, not given.”

Sebek was proud to earn the award, but gave much of the credit to his teammates.

“It means a lot, but you know I’ve got some great safeties, linebackers, linemen doing their jobs, which allows me to be successful,” he said.

Sebek said that being on the scout team allowed him the opportunity to play against Concordia’s ones and twos, which helped him prepare over the last two years.

Van Cleave is excited to get to play and grow with a lot of players who haven’t been stars since they got to Concordia, but have worked their way onto the field over time.

Despite the success in the first game of the season, Daberkow is aware that there is room for improvement on offense, but is nonetheless proud of his team’s effort.

“I think keeping our quarterback’s jersey clean was a big part of that win, and I think we’re just scratching the surface of where our potential could be with our offense,” he said. “We left a ton of things out there, and we have some work to do, but I was proud of the effort.”

The next Concordia home game will be for homecoming on Oct. 11 as the Bulldogs host Midland at 1 p.m.