THIS WEEKEND IN PEACOCK FOOTBALL... The Upper Iowa football team visits St. Paul, Minnesota this Saturday for a 12 p.m. match up with the Golden Bears of Concordia University, St. Paul. Both teams dropped one-sided affairs last Thursday night in their season-openers and are anxious to put their week one results behind them. UIU hosted No. 23 Minnesota Duluth and the Bulldogs defeated the Peacocks 41-14, while the Golden Bears traveled to Winona State and dropped a 47-6 decision to the Warriors. Upper Iowa rushed for 134 yards and threw for 170 with two touchdowns against the nationally-ranked Bulldogs. Concordia-St. Paul passed for 130 yards and ran for 57 in Winona. The Golden Bears scored on a pair of field goals on their two drives surrounding halftime. Both teams surrendered over 500 yards of total offense to their opponents in week one.
LIVE OPTIONS... The game will be webcasted by Concordia-St. Paul. The game can be streamed through most mobile devices at NSICNetwork.com/UIUPeacocks or through the NSIC Network app on Roku and Amazon Fire devices, as well as Apple and Android televisions. Links to live stats and the webcast are available online at UIUPeacocks.com/Live.
MOBILE TICKETING… Fans are strongly encouraged to purchase tickets in advance through CSPBears.com/Tickets. Tickets will be available at the gate, but there may be lines. Skip the line! Purchase your tickets now and gain easy entry by showing your QR Code received after purchase.
THE SERIES... Upper Iowa has posted wins in four of the last seven meetings with Concordia-St. Paul after the Golden Bears won the first seven games in the matchup. The Peacocks' 4-10 record includes a 28-24 win in 2013, a 52-20 victory in 2015, a 41-21 win in 2016 and 2017's 34-29 victory. The first blemish over the last six seasons came in 2014 when the Golden Bears rallied for a 37-34 overtime victory at Sea Foam Stadium in St. Paul. The second loss, 34-7, came in 2018 and snapped a three-game winning streak for UIU. CSP also won the 2019 edition 28-23 at Harms-Eischeid Stadium. The series began in 2006 and the two teams have locked up in six games where the margin of victory was four points or less. The Peacocks lost 20-17 in 2007 and dropped a wild 57-56 double overtime game in Fayette in 2009. The 2011 contest marked another down-to-the-wire decision in the final quarter; Concordia claimed a come-from-behind, one-point win, 20-19, after scoring 13 points in the final four minutes of the game. Last year in Fayette, the Peacock football team held a two-score lead with nine minutes to play, but a late touchdown by the guests got them back in the game, 34-29. CSP then drove down the field late, only to be stopped on a fourth-down try, and UIU held on for a hard-fought, five-point victory.
LAST TIME THEY MET... The last time the two teams got together was during the first month of the 2019 season and the Golden Bears made it three straight wins as they took an 18-point lead in the third quarter and held on for a 28-23 victory in Fayette. The 2019 game could have had quite a few turning points, but in the end the game was decided after UIU's big forced fumble late in the fourth quarter. The Peacocks took over at the CSP 24-yard line with momentum fully on their side after
Laith Smith punched the ball out and Austin Buck fell on it. Harms-Eischeid Stadium was electric as the home team looked as if they would take the lead late in the fourth quarter. The Peacock scoring drive stalled out just seven yards shy of the winning touchdown as the home team turned the ball back to Concordia-St. Paul on downs with less than four minutes to play.
LOOKING IN THE REARVIEW… The No. 23 Bulldogs of Minnesota Duluth amassed over 500 yards of total offense on the way to a 41-14 season-opening victory over the Peacocks. UMD's quarterback John Larson stole the show early on with 321 passing yards and five touchdowns in the first half; he finished the game with 447 yards and six touchdown throws on 22 completions. Armani Carmickle hauled in five passes for 209 yards and a pair of touchdowns including an 84-yard bomb from Larson that put a cap on the night's scoring. Upper Iowa cut the gap to 20-7 in the second quarter when freshman quarterback
TJ Smith found senior
DJ Emsweller streaking over the middle of the field for a 54-yard touchdown. In the third quarter, Upper Iowa slimmed the deficit to 34-14 when Smith capped off a four-play, 87-yard drive with a five-yard dive up the middle and across the goal line. The Bulldogs scored the final touchdown of the night on the second scoring-connection between Larson and Carmickle to set the final score at 41-14.
WEEK ONE LEADERS... Running back
Willy Camacho ended the night with an impressive 101 yards on just 16 carries for an average of 6.3 yards per carry. The young back also returned four kicks for 115 yards including a long run back of 71 yards.
Erik Hansen tallied eight tackles in the game including five for loss and a pair of quarterback sacks. Three Peacocks,
Brody Bazile,
Charlie Caruso, and
Isaac Pope, each posted six tackles apiece, while
Zacarius Murray and
Kyle Domin each recorded five stops.
NEXT UP... The Peacocks return to Harms-Eischeid Stadium next Saturday, Sept. 18 for their Military Appreciation Game. UIU will line up against the Wolves of Northern State University at 6 p.m.
