What: CUC Football v. Olivet College
Where: Concordia Stadium, River Forest, IL
When: Saturday, Sept. 14, 1:00 p.m. (Central time)

Fresh off a decisive victory in their first outing of the 2019 season, the Concordia-Chicago Cougars return to familiar surroundings as they host Olivet College of Michigan for the first of four home games this fall.  

The Cougars needed just one quarter in their opener at Beloit College last Saturday to erase any doubts about a victory for new head coach Jason Aubry. The offense put two quick touchdowns on the board, and two interceptions by the defense gave CUC a short field, resulting in two more touchdowns for a 28-0 lead after the first 15 minutes. It was academic at that point as the Cougars rolled to a 44-6 win over the Bucs.

Lance Moise rushed for 98 yards in that first quarter and 169 for the game, He was unstoppable when the Cougars gave him the ball inside the 10, scoring six touchdowns with the longest going for nine yards. But, his six visits to the end zone gave the senior another CUC record (the previous record was four), and Moise also captured the single-game record for rushing touchdowns in a conference game as well (for those curious, the Division III record is eight, by Carey Bender of Coe College in 1994).

The offense was not one-dimensional either. Jaxon Aubry made a fine debut at quarterback, going 14 of 19 for 140 yards. He used six different receivers, his top one being Semaj James. It was a welcome return to the team for James, who was injured in game two last year, but he was back and contributing with six catches for 56 yards.

Defensively, two of the linebackers made the biggest impact on the game. Tyler Dudley was in on 10 tackles, seven of them solo. Matt Henning made six tackles but also accounted for a big sack and forced fumble as well as one of the first-quarter interceptions. Freshman Tyler Creamer had the other interception, along with a big third-down tackle on the prior series.

Saturday will be only the fifth time that the Cougars have hooked up with the Olivet Comets, and only the second time at Concordia Stadium. The Cougars hosted the Comets in 2009, with Olivet winning in a blowout. However, the Cougars turned the tables the following year with a 12-7 win in Michigan, The last two games, both at Olivet in 2014 and 2018, came as part of the NACC-MIAA Challenge with the Comets winning both.

Like CUC, the Comets come in with a week-one victory to their credit, 20-17 over Wilmington College in Ohio. Olivet fell behind 10-0 but got one touchdown back before halftime. The Comets then scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to take a 20-10 lead before the Quakers scored late. However, an on-side kick failed, allowing Olivet to run out the clock.

Olivet had just six more yards of offense than Wilmington, but senior running back Noah McMinn was the difference-maker for the Comets, carrying 26 times for 110 yards and scoring the go-ahead touchdown. The contributions in Olivet's passing game came from freshmen, with Kaleb Jarrett throwing for 97 yards on 11 of 18 and running nine times for 30 more yards. Jarrett's top two receivers were also freshmen - Zameer Wallace (4-36) and Jalen Broussard (3-37).

The Comets played a sturdy game on defense, with Andrew Campbell making 11 tackles and Coleton Swims eight. Jeylin Rogers accounted for the Comets' lone takeaway of the game with a strip-sack of the quarterback and a recovery of the fumble. 

For CUC, this week's game is a continuation of learning how to "handle" a season. "We're constantly impressing on our guys the idea that our most important game of the season is always our next one," says Coach Aubry. "It's nice to have the victory from last week, but that's behind us now, All our attention is on Olivet, then next week the biggest game on our schedule is Finlandia, and so on." Of course, this week's game is also the home opener. "We want all of our home games to be a great college football gameday experience. This week, we anticipate a big crowd, a lot of people coming back, and lots of excitement. We want our freshmen to understand what that experience is like and how to react to it, and we want everyone to just come through it, play well and we'll be fine.'