University of St. Thomas Athletics
Concordia-Moorhead
Football falls 31-20 to No. 17-ranked Cobbers
9/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Freshman RB Cory Johnson rushed 11 times for 168 yards, including a clinching 34-yard TD run in the final 3:00, as host Concordia College (2-0 overall, 1-0 MIAC) scored a 31-20 victory over St. Thomas in their MIAC football game Saturday in Moorhead.
The 17th-ranked Cobbers, last year's MIAC champions, posted their 11th consecutive MIAC victory dating back to late 2003. They beat UST for the fourth time in a row.
The Cobbers outgained the Toms 417-345 yards. Each team had an interception and a lost fumble, although two of those turnovers came in the final 30 seconds.
St. Thomas, which was shutout in the second half last week in its season opener, showed some offensive consistency with multi-play scoring drives of 76, 80 and 69 yards.
The Cobbers rushed for 357 yards and passed for just 60.
Defensively, UST's Andrew Ubbelohde was in on 16 tackles, forced a fumble and had 1.5 sacks. Ben Kessler was in on 10 tackles and had 1.5 sacks.
The Toms led 7-0 after one quarter on Joe Lepsche's 3-yard run. But Concordia scored the next 24 points.
The Toms pulled within 24-14 on Joel Korte's 14-yard scoring pass from Ryan Jansen with 5:00 to play in the game. Johnson's 34-yard run with 2:52 left pushed the lead back to 17. Jake Casey scored on a two-yard run with 40 seconds remaining to close the scoring.
Jansen completed 21-of-38 passes for 243 yards. Korte had six catches for 75 yards. Casey rushed 14 times for 32 yards.
UST (0-2 overall, 0-1 MIAC) returns home next Saturday to face 0-2 Augsburg. The Toms' two defeats have come vs. teams now combined 5-0 as Coe edged Central 17-14 on the road Saturday in a key Iowa battle. Coe rallied to nip UST 24-21 last weekend.
In other conference scores, St. Olaf edged Bethel 27-25, St. John's topped Carleton 41-7, Hamline held off Gustavus 7-3 and Augsburg lost to North Central (Ill.) 64-25.
