What: CUC Football v. Aurora University
Where: Concordia Stadium
When: Saturday, Oct. 6, 2:15 PM
Links: Video   Live Stats

Two long-time rivals looking to even up their conference records will battle it out on Saturday as Concordia-Chicago hosts its Homecoming game against Aurora University. Kickoff is at a later than usual starting time of 2:15.

Homecoming is all about tradition. Concordia's first Homecoming was played in the final game of the 1925 season when CUC hosted Wheaton College. Another tradition began the first game of the 1926 season when Concordia played Aurora for the first time. While there were some years Aurora was without a football team, the two have met regularly since the Spartans resumed football in the 1980s. Aurora leads the all-time series 27-10-4, although CUC has fared better in recent years, going 5-4 since 2009. The last two years have produced a pair of two-point games in favor of the Spartans, 28-26 in 2016 and 16-14 last season.

Aurora comes in with an 0-4 record, having lost their NACC opener at Eureka 31-28 last Saturday. The Spartans' top offensive weapons are quarterback Gavin Zimbelman and running back Connor Olson, and CUC should remember them from last year. Olson, who had touchdown runs of 23 and 82 yards at Eureka, ran for 182 yards and a TD last year, while Zimbelman (currently second in the NACC in passing yards per game) threw for 173 yards on 15-27 in Aurora's two-point win. On defense, Casey Dycus led the way in last year's game with seven tackles, and he is currently among AU's leaders with 22 tackles and one interception.

On Concordia's (1-3, 0-1 NACC) side, Lance Moise is poised to join an elite group should he gain at least 76 rushing yards on Saturday. moise would become (to the best of our research) just the 15th rusher in NCAA history to reach the 1,000-yard plateau by his fifth game of the season. Moise is averaging 231.0 yards per game, including a high of 303 in the season-opening win over Beloit College.  Defensively, the Cougars have two of the top three tacklers in the conference. Rodolfo Payan is the current leader at 12.3 per game, highlighted by an excellent week one against Beloit with 17.Payan also led the Cougars in last year's game against Aurora with 10 tackles. Newcomer Matt Henning is third in the nacc at an even 10.0 per game. Henning had nine in last week's game plus a pair of fumble recoveries.