What: CUC Football at Aurora
Where: Spartans' Athletic Park, Montgomery, IL
When: Saturday, Oct. 12 at 1:00

Fresh off a successful start to their conference season last week, the Concordia-Chicago Cougars will face consecutive road tests in their quest to be among the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference contenders in 2019. First up this Saturday is the Aurora University Spartans, with CUC traveling to the Spartans' Athletic Park, the team's new facility in Montgomery.

The Cougars come in with a 3-1 record, winners of their last two games after a 31-26 win over Lakeland University last Saturday at Concordia Stadium. Two CUC players made welcome returns to the lineup. Wide receiver Da'Nas Pinellas played his first game of 2019 and made his presence felt with four receptions. One of those receptions came early in the third quarter with CUC holding a one-point lead and facing a third-and-eight. Pinellas took a short pass from Griffin Beaudette, found some room cutting to the outside and took it 58 yards to the house.

The other key returner was running back Lance Moise, who left the Sept. 21 game at Finlandia University late in the first quarter. Moise rushed 32 times for 166 yards and touchdowns of 21 and seven yards, earning NACC Student-Athlete of the Week honors for his effort. Moise's two trips to the end zone gave him ta new CUC career record for rushing touchdowns with 45, and his 166 yards put him at 3.854 yards for his career - just 103 behind Khyree Copeland's standard set in 2010.

Linebacker Matt Henning has been making big plays all season long, but last Saturday was one of his top career efforts. Henning led the defense with 14 tackles (six solo), including a big third-down sack in the first quarter after Lakeland had already taken an early lead. Another player that is fast earning a reputation for timely plays is Tyler Creamer. The linebacker blocked an extra point that kept the Cougars in the lead at halftime and later intercepted a Muskies' pass in the end zone to stop a late rally.

Making timely plays is what every CUC player will look for this week as they take on the co-favorite in the NACC preseason poll. The Aurora Spartans enter this weekend with a 3-1 record, 1-0 in conference after beating the other NACC co-favorite Eureka College by a 62-35 score last Saturday. The Spartans are averaging a gaudy 48 points per game, led by quarterback Gavin Zimbelman. He has already passed for over 1500 yards and has thrown 25 touchdown passes to just two interceptions. Zimbelman employs a talented group of receivers including Jacolby Maxwell and Connor Olson, and running back Tyran Bailey is averaging 95 rushing yards per game.

On the other side of the ball, opponents have had some success scoring points against Aurora to the tune of 31.7 per game. However, the Spartans feature some impact players like D-back Keion Adams (24 tackles, one forced fumble, one recovery) and linebacker Blake Martz (16 tackles, three QB sacks).

In preparing for Aurora and their firepower, CUC head coach Jason Aubry will take a page from last week's game plan against Lakeland. "You want to control the game and keep their offense off the field as much as possible," said Aubry, and that strategy was validated in the third quarter last week when the Cougars held the ball for 12 of the 15 minutes and outscored the Muskies 14-0. That being noted, Aubry realizes the challenge of taking on one of the NACC co-favorites this week, and he offers this thought as to the team's mental approach: "We have to look at this as a heavyweight fight. We will face adversity at times, and how we respond is going to be the key - how do we bounce back? If we can get up off the mat and fight back, if we can make this a game in the fourth quarter, then that's a good scenario for us."