Bulldog football beats Doane Tigers 35-7 on opening day

The Bulldog football team plays against the Doane University Tigers on Sept. 6.

Photo credit: Michaela Gibbs

By Michaela Gibbs

The Concordia Nebraska Bulldog football team opened its season on Sept. 6 by defeating its rival Doane 35-7.

The Tigers were plagued by penalties in the first quarter and struggled to move the ball up the field. A Doane fumble, recovered by Drake Trent, helped lead to Concordia’s first touchdown of the season, an eight-yard pass from Gideon Stark to Jonny Puelz.

The Bulldogs extended their lead in the second quarter by 14 points courtesy of a one-yard run-in by running back Carlos Collazo after a 52-yard drive. The highlight play of the evening came from Adam Van Cleave. After receiving a pass, Cleave broke out of three tackles and ran 53 yards, scoring another touchdown for Concordia.

The third quarter featured the only Doane touchdown, a 16-yard pass from Sam Hartman to Quinton Archer. Concordia defensive back Will Potratz made an interception with five minutes to go in the third quarter and ran it to the one-yard line. This set the Bulldogs up for another Collazo touchdown. Right after the kickoff, Concordia forced another turnover at the Doane 33-yard line. On the ensuing drive, Collazo once again was set up to run in from the one-yard line for his third touchdown of the evening.

The fourth quarter did not change the score. Concordia made eight total sacks during the night, which was part of an overall successful defensive performance.

Terry Sebek went solo on three of the Bulldog sacks, and Trent had 14 tackles. Van Cleave was the top Concordia receiver with 173 yards and one touchdown. Stark went 24-43 with two touchdowns and 278 of the 401 yards of Bulldog offense. Kicker Peyton Atwood was five for five on extra-point attempts.

The stadium was packed with 2,000 fans for the opening game of the season. Halftime featured a light show on the football field. The game opened with a flyover by Pilot Kurt Muhle during the national anthem.

Muhle’s great-grandson, Braylen Muhle, plays on the Concordia football team, and his father, Chad Muhle, arranged the flyover with Concordia. Kurt Muhle has been a pilot for about 43 years and has done air shows for part of that time.

“I’ve done air shows for about 20 of those [43] years, and part of that is doing flyovers, national anthem flyovers and stuff. So, you know, it just kind of evolved,” said Muhle.