SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Make it three utterly dominant victories in four outings for the Concordia University Football team. The Bulldogs found balance in the run and pass games on Saturday (Sept. 21) and bullied host Briar Cliff by a final score of 63-13 at Memorial Field in Sioux City, Iowa. DJ McGarvie whirled five touchdown tosses and sizzling running back Marp Arp found the end zone twice as part of the throttling. It started up front for a Concordia squad that piled up 479 more yards of total offense.
Head Coach Patrick Daberkow’s squad has put together back-to-back blowout wins on the road while moving to 3-1 overall (3-1 GPAC). The 63 points scored were the most ever by a Bulldog Football team in a GPAC conference game and the most for the program since a 64-0 win over Martin Luther in 1982.
“We put together a game plan and you want to be able to execute it. I thought our guys executed it really well,” Daberkow said. “We were able to run a lot of our stuff and felt good about it. We had very explosive second and third quarters. I think we’re a tough offense to defend. If teams really want to take away one thing, we can hit them with the other. We have a confident group in our ability to do that. It’s good to see it come together.”
One week after rattling off 641 yards of offense, Concordia was more efficient in terms of putting points on the board. The touchdown drives at Briar Cliff covered respective distances of 17, 19, 74, 12, 56, 69, 44 and 74 yards. An opportunistic defense set up the opening touchdown when linebacker Grant Huss picked off a pass. In adding an exclamation mark on the 35-point third-quarter outburst, Daylon Henson maneuvered his way into the end zone for a pick six. The Bulldogs’ ownership of the line of scrimmage combined with a plus-five turnover margin made it a long afternoon for Briar Cliff.
Kept comfortable by his veteran offensive line, McGarvie padded his school record career touchdown pass total (65 and counting) with scoring tosses of three and 12 yards to Daylan Russell, 11 and 50 yards to Austin Jablonski and 36 yards to Adam Van Cleave. The reigning GPAC Offensive Player of the Week Arp found paydirt from eight and 38 yards out as part of his 24-carry, 156-yard rushing effort. Arp entered the day as the GPAC’s leading rusher.
Said Daberkow, “Any time you score more than 60 points, your offensive line deserves credit. We really did a good job up front protecting our quarterbacks and we ran the ball well. To have 230 rushing and 250 passing is the balance we want to strike. I thought we could have done better on third down, but our fourth down efficiency was really good. We took some chances and went for it quite a bit on fourth down today.”
McGarvie finished 13-for-23 for 169 yards and five touchdown passes. He was later relieved by Gideon Stark (8-for-10 for 74 yards) and Camden Jensen (2-for-4 for six yards) as the score got out of hand. With Carlos Collazo sidelined (expected back next week), Jesse Herndon got carries as the No. 2 back and rushed 12 times for 49 yards and a touchdown. Jablonski pulled in five catches for 71 yards as he nears 2,000 career receiving yards. Van Cleave hauled in four receptions for 59 yards and Russell made six grabs for 42 yards. Russell has four touchdowns on the year. The Bulldogs averaged a healthy clip of 5.9 yards per rush and did not allow a sack.
As good as Concordia’s offensive line was, the d-line matched that play on the other side of the ball. The Briar Cliff rushing attack mustered only 1.7 yards per carry while faced with the likes of Carson Fehlhafer, Devon Polley and Kyle Sterup. Polley posted two sacks to lead a defense that recorded six sacks. Two fumbles were forced by Stephen Hughes while Deegan Barnes was credited with a team high 12 tackles. Tal Solo also registered seven tackles and a sack.
“Our defensive line really dominated the line of scrimmage today,” Daberkow said. “I was proud of their effort. I thought they really handled things. We held them to 61 yards rushing. That’s about as much as you can ask for. Defensive touchdowns are good for my soul. I love seeing those guys convert interceptions into touchdowns.”
Briar Cliff slumped to 1-3 (1-2 GPAC) with its one win being a 15-10 decision at Doane. The Chargers made it a competitive first quarter with Concordia by mounting a nine-play 75-yard drive that got them within one, 7-6. That’s when the wheels came off as the Bulldogs owned the second and third quarters by a combined score of 56-0. Briar Cliff got its two scores via a one-yard run by Matthew Mason and a three-yard rush by Gavin Dobson.
Through four games, Concordia is averaging 42.8 points per game and 489.0 yards per game, figures that would both shatter school records for a season. The previous high for points scored by the Bulldogs in a GPAC game came in 2021 when the Bulldogs toppled Briar Cliff, 61-21.
Following two weeks on the road, the Bulldogs will host No. 10 Dordt (2-0, 2-0 GPAC) on homecoming Saturday (Sept. 28). In this week’s action, the Defenders steamrolled Hastings, 58-0, at home. Dordt has won each of the past six series meetings with Concordia, including a 29-28 squeaker in Seward in 2022.