Concordia-Chicago at Ripon, Saturday at 1:00 - Live stats & video

Aug. 31, 2017 - The 95th year of Concordia-Chicago football kicks off this Saturday, Sept. 2 as CUC looks to bring home a victory from Wisconsin. The Cougars and the Ripon College Red Hawks are scheduled for a 1:00 kickoff from Ingalls Field in Ripon (directions to Ingalls Field).

Although both of these Midwestern institutions have had a long history of football, Saturday's game will be just the third meeting all-time between the two. Both teams have defended their home field, with Ripon winning 52-6 at Ingalls Field in 1990 and CUC (4-6 in 2016) winning last season's opener 40-30 at Concordia Stadium.

Head coach Randy Awrey, beginning his fifth season at the helm of the Cougars, believes that his team is in a good position as they enter this first of 10 challenges for the season. "We had two scrimmages, one away at Cornell and one at home against Lake Forest...I thought we played exceptionally well in both and got accomplished what we wanted to. Now we're going to put (the lessons we've learned) together as we go on the road, where it's always a hostile environment being on the away team's sidelines, and try to take care of this task of winning a football game."

Awrey noted in an interview earlier this week (click here to view it in its entirety) that Ripon will likely want to slow the game down while CUC will want to quicken the pace. A fast-paced offense is nothing new to CUC, who will return much of their offense from the 2016 team that averaged 28 points per game. Running back Lance Moise,the NACC Freshman Player of the Year, debuted against Ripon with a 157-yard game including a game-clinching 90-yard TD run, and carried on to a 1,182-yard (9 games) rookie campaign. But the Red Hawks cannot over-compensate on stopping Moise at the risk of leaving themselves open to the CUC passing game. Quarterback Shane Virnala struck for 357 passing yards and five touchdowns against Ripon in CUC's win last year, and many of Virnala's receivers are back as well, including senior Ryan Allison, who caught 10 passes (including two for TDs) for 149 yards in that opening game.

On defense, Awrey stated that he has been pleased with their play as a unit in the preseason. noting that "they all have a great understanding of the schemes that Coach (Mike) Juscik is putting into place, and they're really getting after it on the field." The Cougars' defense will have veteran experience in a couple of key places, with the return of seniors Ivan Vixamar (31 tackles) and Adeoluwa Olaniyan (43 tackles) on the line, junior Rudy Payan (team-leading 86 tackles) at linebacker, and senior Kareem Dabney (46 tackles, 3 INTs) at corner.

Special teams sees the return of Orlando Hayes at kicker while junior Ben Parker will take over the punting duties in 2017. A number of men are competing for return duties (and certainly, Ryan Allison should figure in that mix), and tomorrow's game should give a much clearer picture for future games.

Ripon (2-8 in 2016) will be looking to win their fifth consecutive home opener while trying to stop CUC from winning its third consecutive season opener. The Red Hawks will start Sam Shroyer at quarterback; the sophomore earned the job after a freshman season in which he accounted for 531 yards of total offense and six touchdowns. Shroyer and fullback Cody Chase (543 yards, five TDs) will operate behind an offensive line that features five new starters in 2017. 

Conversely, the Red Hawks' defense has much experience. The entire linebacking group is intact from 2016, while the defensive line has two seniors, Brandon Bartel and Vince Stensrud, who are among Ripon's all-time leaders in QB sacks.

The game will be broadcast via live stats and video on Ripon's network at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.