Despite starting the season 0-6, the Concordia Lutheran Crusaders caught fire in the second half of the season, earning a playoff berth in TAPPS 4-II under new head coach Bobby Lundquist.

The Crusaders finished the season with a sub-.500 record at 4-7 overall, but more importantly, each of those four wins were in district, which resulted in a 4-2 district mark, good enough for a playoff spot.

Concordia was paired with the San Antonio TMI Panthers in the first round of the TAPPS Division II playoffs. TMI went 7-2 overall on the season.

But it was the Crusaders who came out on top in the first round match-up, earning a 17-10 win to move on to the second round of the playoffs.

Concordia took on defending state champions Dallas Christian Nov. 21 in Waco. Results of that game were unavailable at press time.

The Crusaders, as has been typical of their offense during the past several years, used a punishing ground game to knock off the Panthers. Concordia amassed 296 yards on the ground, lead by Mark Schroeder’s 107 yards and Chance Gray’s 145.

After a scoreless first quarter, Gray’s 65-yard touchdown run with just over eight minutes to go in the second quarter gave the Crusaders a 7-0 lead. The Panthers would answer on their ensuing drive with a 38-yard field goal by John Rowdy Key to cut the Crusader lead to 7-3.

The game remained that way until the fourth quarter when the Panthers took a 10-7 lead on a John Barclay one-yard touchdown run.

With less than 10 minutes to go in the game and down by three, the Crusaders tied the game when John Brandenburg nailed a 36-yard field goal.

Tied at 10 in the final quarter, and in the closing minutes, the Crusader ground game took over. With just over three minutes to play, Schroeder found the end zone from 30 yards out and gave Concordia the 17-10 lead.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed