Bulldog football upsets No. 19 Northwestern 21-17 on Senior Day
The Concordia football team lines up on the center yard line to begin a play (photo from previous game).
Photo credit: Kai Olbrich
By Ransom Watts
The Concordia football team defeated No. 19 Northwestern 21-17 this Saturday in a comeback win on senior night in the last regular season game of the 2025 season.
Concordia struck first in the game on their second drive with a minute left to go in the first quarter on a rushing touchdown from senior quarterback Gideon Stark. The quarter came to a close with Concordia leading 7-0 after a successful kick attempt by the Bulldogs.
Northwestern quickly came back in the first drive of the second quarter with a 75-yard drive that resulted in a touchdown. After quickly getting the ball back, Northwestern scored again, making the score 14-7 in favor of the Raiders.
With two minutes remaining before halftime, Northwestern brought the ball within field goal range and succeeded in adding three points to their score to make it a 17-7 game.
Late in the third quarter, the Bulldogs began to mount their comeback with a passing touchdown from Stark to junior Johnny Puelz to make the score 17-14. For the rest of the third, the Bulldogs were able to keep Northwestern at bay.
On their first drive of the fourth quarter, Concordia drove the ball 63 yards down the field and completed a touchdown when senior Adam Van Cleave ran the ball into the endzone. A successful extra point put the Bulldogs into the lead 21-17, which is how the game ended.
Stark finished the game with 146 passing yards, eight rushing and two touchdowns. Van Cleave put up 110 rushing yards and 30 receiving yards along with his touchdown.
Senior Dylan Meyer had eight tackles and a team-high four sacks while senior Daylon Henson led the team in total tackles with 12.
The Bulldogs concluded the 2025 season 7-3 and placed third in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.
