Concordia football closes out eight-win regular season strong, defeating Midland 45-13
Junior wide receiver Adam Van Cleave (2) runs his route with senior Austin Jablonski (16) behind him.
Photo credit: Maddy Peters
By Maddy Peters
Sports Editor
The No. 20 Concordia football team finished their regular season with a massive 45-13 win over the Midland University Warriors on a windy Saturday afternoon.
The Bulldogs have their first eight-win season since 2001 and have protected their argument for a national tournament bid.
The first quarter was a slog for the Concordia defense, who struggled to put down the Midland offense. The Warriors put up two long drives that both ended with a turnover on downs, but the Bulldogs were unable to make headway on their first drive and were put in a punting position on the second with seven seconds left in the quarter.
Concordia’s second punt turned into a massive opportunity at the start of the second quarter. The punt bounced off the shoulder of Midland’s returner allowing senior Dylan Smith to recover the ball and put the team at the nine-yard line. Sophomore Carlos Collazo rushed the ball in for the first touchdown of the day.
Midland responded with an efficient drive. Warrior quarterback Teryn Berry threw a 23-yard pass to put the ball in Concordia territory and backup quarterback Jacob Jones threw a 41-yard pass to put them in the red zone. The team tied the game with a two-yard rush.
Concordia failed to get another drive going allowing Midland to take over the half with a second touchdown before the end of the half. Berry threw a 15-yard pass to Warrior wide receiver Tae Marks to take the lead, but Marks received a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and set the extra point kick back 15 yards leading to its failure.
The Bulldogs took off in the third quarter and put up a whopping 31 points to cement their rout. The team played with the wind at their backs which gave them the passing advantage in the quarter.
Their first drive started off promising with an 11-yard rush from senior running back Mark Arp and a 38-yard pass by senior quarterback DJ McGarvie to senior wide receiver Austin Jablonski. However, the team was unable to get into the endzone leading to a 28-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Peyton Atwood.
Concordia’s next drive consisted of two plays. Collazo rushed for 34 yards to put the Bulldogs in Warrior territory and Jablonski hauled in a 35-yard touchdown pass from McGarvie to take back the lead at 17-13.
Midland’s response was cut short by an interception by sophomore Will Potratz, who returned the ball 22 yards to put the Bulldogs in the red zone. Arp took care of the drive with 10 yards over three plays with a two, five, and three-yard touchdown run.
Concordia’s next drive ended with a massive pass from McGarvie to senior tight end John Goodwin for a 53-yard touchdown to put the Bulldogs up 31-13.
Midland threw another interception, this time to senior defensive line Devon Polley. Arp took in another touchdown in a fourth and one 0-line push to the endzone.
The third quarter finally ended with the Bulldogs up 38-13, but Jablonski was not done with the game yet. After Midland turned the ball over on downs for the third time, Concordia ran a wildcat formation drive with the Lincoln native at the helm. He ran for a cumulative 56 yards ending with a 34-yard rushing touchdown to score the last touchdown of the game.
The game ended with a third interception to junior Daylon Henson with just over a minute left in the game. McGarvie came out to take a couple knees and end the game.
McGarvie went 11-14 for 167 passing yards. He threw his 81st and 82nd career touchdown passes and surpassed 9,000 passing yards. The next closest quarterback is Jarrod Pimentel with 6,435 from 1998-2001. Junior backup quarterback Gideon Stark made an appearance in the fourth to close out the game. He was 0-1 in passing.
Jablonski hit 200 career receptions for the day with 96 yards on six catches. He is the second Concordia receiver to hit that milestone. He joins former teammate Korrell Koehlmoos in the burgeoning 200 club.
Arp was the top rusher for the Bulldogs with 120 yards on 25 attempts. Arp tied a season record of 13 rushing touchdowns in a season set by Cleve Wester in 1984.
On the defense, junior Grant Huss was the lead tackler with 10 total tackles including seven solos and three assists. He also had two tackles for loss totaling nine yards lost. Senior Kyle Sterup also recorded 10 tackles with three solos and seven assists and three tackles for short losses accumulating to one total yard.
Henson had another fantastic day with six tackles made up of three solos and three assists, an interception, a tackle for a loss of four yards, three broken up passes and a fumble return in the second quarter.
The record setting 2024 Concordia football team now awaits the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics championship tournament pairing announcement scheduled for Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. CT.
No. 6 Morningside has clinched the automatic Great Plains Athletic Conference bid with a perfect 10-0 conference record. Concordia now competes against No. 10 Northwestern College and No. 16 Dordt University for seven at-large bids in a round robin situation. Concordia lost to Dordt but beat Northwestern and Northwestern edged out Dordt last week in a 3-0 nailbiter.
The question is whether the win over Midland will be enough for Concordia. The Warriors fared well against the other big teams in the GPAC with an 18-point loss to Dordt, seven-point loss to Morningside and 10-point loss to Northwestern. Furthermore, the other big three teams had blowout wins against the bottom teams in the conference on Saturday with Dordt beating Waldorf University 75-12, Morningside beating Dakota Wesleyan 56-3 and Northwestern beating Briar Cliff University 71-7.
