Football celebrates senior day with a 42-6 win over Hastings Broncos
Junior wide receiver Adam Van Cleave prepares to make a catch.
Photo credit: Maddy Peters
By Maddy Peters
Sports Editor
The Concordia football team celebrated its senior day with a big win over the Hastings College Broncos Saturday afternoon with a 42-6 game.
In a game rife with turnovers for the Bulldogs, the team stuck with it and kept fighting to put the ball in the Concordia endzone. Coach Patrick Daberkow was frustrated with the mistakes, but grateful for the ultimate win.
“I think it was an ugly win, but it was a win, and we’ll take it,” said Daberkow.
The final score hid a complicated first half with offensive blunders abound. Concordia’s first drive of the game ended with a fumble from senior running back Mark Arp, Hastings’ drive was ended by an interception by sophomore Luke Penrod and Concordia’s second drive of the game ended with an interception on a throw from senior quarterback DJ McGarvie.
Concordia finally managed to get on the board at the end of the first quarter with a showcase of McGarvie’s throwing and senior wide receiver Austin Jablonski’s receiving skills. McGarvie threw a 28-yard pass to Jablonski to put the team at the Concordia 30-yard line, then threw a nuke for a 67-yard touchdown pass to Jabo.
Hastings’ lone touchdown came in the second half off another fumble from Arp. The extra kick was wide of the goal posts allowing Concordia to maintain the lead.
The Bulldogs responded with a quick drive down the field and yet another touchdown pass from McGarvie, this time to senior tight end Daylan Russell.
McGarvie’s second interception came on the following Concordia drive. The Broncos were unable to capitalize.
The final points of the half would come after a series of passes ending in a third touchdown two-yard pass for McGarvie to junior Adam Van Cleave.
The second half started off seemingly where the first one ended, with a third McGarvie interception. The Broncos were stopped by the Bulldog defense and were once again unable to capitalize.
Hastings began having offense woes of their own when senior linebacker Nick Leader snatched an interception leading to the fourth touchdown of the day with a 13-yard rush from sophomore running back Carlos Collazo.
Leader recovered a fumble as well on Hastings’ next drive putting Concordia in prime position to score again. Collazo would once again take the plunge into the endzone off a two-yard rush.
McGarvie would get one last nuke in the game with a 42-yard touchdown pass to Jablonski to score the last points of the game midway through the fourth quarter. Junior backup quarterback Gideon Stark closed out the game.
McGarvie passed for 326 yards with an 18-37 completion rate. He suffered his first sack since the team played Morningside University back in September. Stark threw for 30 yards with a 3-5 completion rate.
Jablonski was the top receiver of the day with 184 receiving yards on eight throws. He moved up to number two on Concordia’s career receiving yards with 2,627 just 267 yards behind old teammate Korrell Koehlmoos who has 2,894. McGarvie’s next favorite target was Van Cleave who finished the day with 71 receiving yards on six throws.
Collazo was the top runner for the day with 85 rushing yards on 12 attempts. Arp would finish behind him with 58 rushing yards on 16 attempts.
The stars of the show were the Bulldog defense who tirelessly kept the Broncos out of the end zone despite short rests between long drives.
“I think it’s always a challenge for the defense to be put in a tough spot and I was really proud of how our defense responded all day,” said Daberkow. “We put them in a tough spot multiple times and they responded really well and so I was really proud of that. Even the time that they scored, we gave enough effort on the extra point block to force a bad kick, so I was proud of that.”
And work they did. Concordia racked up seven sacks and seven quarterback hurries. Senior defensive lineman Kyle Sterup recorded three tackles for loss including two sacks for a total of 10 yards lost. Leader also picked up a sack for a loss of six. Senior Stephen Hughes II had the biggest sack with a loss of 11 yards for Hastings.
Junior Grant Huss was the leader in tackles for the Bulldogs with 12 total including nine solos and three assists. Seniors Devon Polley and Michael Grindey both recorded four solos and four assists for a total of eight tackles. Sterup finished the day with seven tackles with four solo and three assists.
Concordia gets a break before heading into its last regular season game against Midland University. With the dreams of a playoff bid on the line, Daberkow has his work cut out for him to keep the team in top shape and ready to take on their last challenge.
“We have some things we got to clean up,” said Daberkow. “I was proud of how the guys fought, though, and I was excited to get the outcome that we got and very happy to be able to celebrate in the locker room, celebrate the seniors and that was fun.”
Concordia celebrated 29 seniors with the customary tassels and tool bags including Arp, McGarvie, Jablonski, Grindey, Sterup, Polley, Hughes II, Russell, Leader, Jackson Anderson, Cohen Carpenter, Zach Downs, John Goodwin, Braden Hackmer, Toby Hager, Sterling Harp, Joe Kahrs, Myles Lyons, Reed McFadden, Joseph McQueen, Thomas Meadough, Nathan Miller, Bryce Needham, Justin Ningen, Josh Palacios, Travis Parsons, Blake Schlegel, Dylan Smith and Talatau Solo.
“Oh, I love them [the seniors], that’s it,” said Daberkow. “I mean, I love them. They put so much work into the program and I just love them to death. So I’m really proud of them and I’m very thankful for them. They’ve put in a lot of years of work and so to be able to celebrate them with the win is huge.”
The team is now 7-2 overall and in the Great Plains Athletic Conference for the first time since the renowned 2001 season which sent the Bulldogs to nationals. With the incoming bye week, Concordia will wait to finish its regular season on Nov. 16 against Midland with kickoff at 1 p.m.
