This Week in Peacock Football… Upper Iowa football welcomes St. Ambrose into Harms-Eischeid Stadium for their home opener on Saturday at 3 p.m. This is the first time these two teams have met, as well as the first time in 12 years that the Peacocks have played a non-conference team on their schedule. Back in 2011, Upper Iowa defeated Texas A&M University Commerce 15-14 here in Fayette. 
 
Hall of Fame Weekend…This weekend also marks the celebration of this year's inductees into the Hall of Fame. Six former Peacocks, including four new honorees from last year's spring meetings, will be inducted into the legendary group of Peacock alumni. The four newest honorees include Jill Williams ('93), Jena (Kilburg) Ernst ('08), Jill (Preeshl) Norton ('11) and Josh McKeon ('11). The quartet will be joined by Rachael Schmidt ('09) and Rochelle (Schmidt) Engels ('09), who will be recognized as part of the 2021 class of inductees. All Hall of Fame members in attendance at the game will be recognized on the field at halftime.
 
Live Coverage… Fans unable to make it to the stadium on Saturday have several options for following the action. The game will be streamed on the GLVC Network at https://glvcsn.com/uiu/ with pay-per-view access. Live stats (free) can be found through the link attached with this story. Both options can be found every gameday at UIUPeacocks.com/Live. 
 
Recapping CSP… Upper Iowa opened their 2023 campaign Thursday night against non-conference competitor Concordia, St. Paul. The Peacocks fell in a 43-20 final, scoring twice in the second quarter and once in the fourth. 
 
Upper Iowa's first touchdown of the night came early in the second quarter. A handful of consecutive tosses from Darryl Overstreet Jr. connected with Monte Morrow, moving the Peacocks up field and propelling them into the end zone on the third pass. 
 
UIU's next score came just before the first half expired. Overstreet launched a 21-yard pass to Willy Camacho to get things going and the team took advantage of a targeting penalty on that same play, giving them an additional 15 yards. The Peacocks broke out the trick-read to punctuate the drive as Jayden Mitchell received the handoff from Overstreet, lofting the ball into the end zone to the hands of Isaiah Gray before crossing the line of scrimmage, cutting the deficit to 23-12 at the half.  
 
Upper Iowa's last score of the night came in the fourth after Overstreet completed a 33-yard pass to Morrow into the end zone. The Peacocks were then successful in their two-point conversion to Eddie Burgess.  
 
St. Ambrose Week One Recap (Courtesy of SAU Communications)… The Fighting Bees dropped to the UW-Stout Blue Devils last weekend 35-7. An interception on the first offensive drive for SAU (0-2) led to a Blue Devil (1-0) touchdown and an early 7-0 lead with 12:16 to go in the first quarter. Another Bee turnover late in the quarter led to a UW-Stout touchdown pass and a 14-0 lead.St. Ambrose picked up some momentum, going on a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive starting at the end of the first and into the second quarter. Joey Sprinkle found Yemi Ward for a 24-yard touchdown pass to put the Bees on the board with 12:24 left until halftime. After trading punts, the Blue Devils scored on a long touchdown pass to take a 21-7 halftime lead.
 
The Blue Devils opened up the third quarter with a long touchdown drive to take a 28-7 lead with 10:41 left in the frame. A fourth St. Ambrose turnover led to another visitor score and a 35-7 lead heading into the final quarter. Marcellous John picked off the UW-Stout quarterback early in the fourth quarter to put St. Ambrose in good field position, but the Bees couldn't convert it into points. Neither team found the end zone in the fourth for the 35-7 final.

Captains… This year's captains for Upper Iowa football are Tyler Owen, Marcus Orr, Zacarius Murray, Darryl Overstreet Jr., Logan Zacharias and Trey Baker. The honorary captain for this week is Willy Camacho.
 
Ultimate Peacock…The Ultimate Peacock is a title given to an Upper Iowa football athlete who represents hard work and good character, on and off the field. This is voted on by the team prior to fall competition so that the chosen individual can have the honor of wearing the #0 jersey all season. Tyler Owen is this year's Ultimate Peacock. The junior appeared in all 11 games last season, finishing second on the team with 61 tackles (42 solo). He had a season-high 10 tackles in the 2022 season finale versus Sioux Falls. He registered five tackles in the team's season opener last week versus Concordia, St. Paul.
 
Illinois Boys In-synch… The duo of Darryl Overstreet Jr. and Mante Morrow were in-step last Thursday night against the Golden Bears as Morrow recorded two of the team's three touchdowns on heaves downfield from Overstreet Jr. Morrow tallied a game-high 104 yards receiving on five caught passes. His longest reception was 37 yards, leading to the Peacocks' third and final touchdown of the evening. Overstreet Jr. completed 18 passes for 216 yards in the contest. 
 
Up next… Upper Iowa is back at home again next week as they welcome in Missouri S&T. Although this is a Great Lakes Valley Conference opponent, it will not be considered a conference matchup, as the Peacocks face the Miners again this season in Rolla, Mo. in October. Game time is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sep. 16.