Oct. 5, 2013 - A battle of two young football teams looking for their first victory of 2013 provided an afternoon's worth of thrills for a large Homecoming Weekend crowd at Concordia Stadium in River Forest. In the end, the Concordia Cougars overcame some early adversities and put together a strong second half to defeat Rockford University 38-28 and give Randy Awrey his first win as CUC head coach.

The passing prowess of the Regents provided the storyline for the first part of the game. Rockford moved the ball effectively on the game's opening drive, but the Regents were turned away whem Michael Dodd's 32-yard field goal attempt was blocked by C.J. Pasley (St. Louis, MO/Lutheran North). Today's game marked Pasley's return to action after an injury in the preseason, and his presence would be felt again later in the game.

The Cougars could not move the ball on their first drive, but they appeared in good shape when Danny Colapietro's (Norridge, IL/Maine South) punt backed up the visitors to their own seven-yard line. However, on the first snap of their second series, Ahbed Nekrawesh found Delroy Russell behind the defense. Russell caught the ball in stride and raced down the left sideline for the 93-yard score and an early 7-0 lead.

While Concordia could not answer on their next few possessions, they held Rockford for the rest of the quarter thanks to some good pass rush pressure up the middle. Teddy Wayo (Chicago, IL/Evergreen Park) and Tim Bahr (Hartland, WI/Lake Country Lutheran) recorded the first two of eight quarterback sacks for the day, and Marcus Frazier (Chicago, IL/Evergreen Park) recorded a couple of quarterback hurries to keep the Cougars witin seven points at the end of the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, Acusio Bivona (Los Angeles, CA/Hamilton) came in at quarterback for the Cougars. His first pass covered 52 yards to Marc Williams (Houston, TX/West Side) down to the Regents' 16. Moments later from the two-yard line, Bivona threw a quick pass to the right to David Campbell (Fort Myers, FL/East Lee County) who stepped into the end zone untouched for the tying touchdown.

Late in the quarter, the Cougars forced the visitors to punt. Pasley fielded the kick and broke loose on a 56-yard return, tripped up just a few yards short of the goal line. Two plays later, it was Ryan Fischbach (South Elgin, IL/St. Charles North) finding Campbell from five yards out for the freshman's second scoring reception of the half and a 14-7 lead.

Rockford answered immediately with their aerial attack. Starting at their own 35, Nekrawesh hit Milton Phillips for 19 yards to the 46. On the next snap, Nekrawesh and Russell hooked up for their second long scoring strike, Russell outracing the secondary over the final 20 yards. The half ended with the two teams tied at 14-14.

The second half began with Fischbach connecting with Seve Loubriel (Niles, IL/Niles West) for 67 yards into the Rockford red zone. However, the drive stalled and the Cougars missed the go-ahead field goal try. Rockford then took the ball the other way with Nekrawesh hitting Dane Kirk for 62 yards. The Regents eventually found the end zone with Seth Swinehart carrying the ball the final two yards for the 21-14 lead.

Concordia responded with a scoring drive after Campbell got the momentum going with a 33-yard kickoff return. C.J. Woodford (Detroit, MI/John Glenn) ran for 23 yards, the first of several big runs he would make in the second half. Two plays later, Fischbach picked up a first down on a 10-yard scramble down to the 22. The Cougars eventually faced a fourth-and-15 from the 27, but Fischbach found Elijah Walker (Hobart, IN/H.S.) for the big strike and the six points. Colapietro added the extra point, and the game was tied again at 21-21.

In the final minutes of the quarter, Jamaul Martin (Inkster, MI/H.S.) got loose on a 46-yard run to put the ball in the red zone once again. On third down from the 13, Fischbach rolled to the left with the pass rush bearing down on him. At the last second, Fischbach spied Walker who had eluded his coverage. Fischbach lobbed the ball for Walker to make the easy catch and give the Cougars a 28-21 lead to take to the fourth quarter.

A.J. Seidler (West Chicago, IL/H.S.) created the Cougars' first takeaway on the Regents' next possession as he intercepted Nekrawesh and returned the ball into Rockford territory. While Concordia could not convert that opportunity into points, they did not fail on their next chance. Fischbach completed passes of 13 yards to Nelyja Floyd (West Palm Beach, FL/Park Vista) and 19 yards to Williams. The drive stalled at the 15, but Colapietro nailed his field goal attempt from 32 yards, and Concordia had its first two-score lead of the day, 31-21 with 7:56 remaining.

With four minutes left, the Cougars put the icing on the cake. Mike Bailey (Spring Hill, FL/Central) intercepted Nekrawesh and returned the ball 24 yards to the Regents' 10. Woodford's number was called on the next play, and he rushed up the middle untouched for the touchdown to make the score Concordia 38, Rockford 21.

The Regents got one score back with 90 seconds remaining on Andrew Stochl's one-yard sneak. But Martin recovered the onside kick, and the Cougars ran out the clock on an exciting victory.

Concordia amassed 550 yards of offense, the most since they put up 650 against Hope College last September. Woodford led the ground game with 116 yards on 25 carries. Fischbach threw for 270 yards on 21-37 while Bivona added 75 yards on 6-10. Campbell had a career-high nine catches for 68 yards while Williams hauled in five passes for 93 yards.

For Rockford, Nekrawesh completed 14 of 33 passes for 435 yards while Stochl added 57 yards on 5-8 passing. Russell had six catches for 247 yards. However, the Regents were limited to a net ground game of 44 yards on 33 carries.

The Cougars' defense was led by Frazier and Pasley with eight tackles each, followed by Jarrell Dillard (Plainfield, IL/Plainfield South) with seven. Wayo and Abdias Corgelas (Fort Myers, FL/H.S.) led the Cougars' sack attack with two each.

Concordia will look to make it two wins in a row next Saturday, Oct. 12 when they travel to Milwaukee for a battle with Wisconsin Lutheran College.