Upper Iowa football was successful in its quest to conquer Concordia, St. Paul in their home opener at Harms-Eischeid Stadium by a score of 33-7. The Peacock defense put on a show as they nabbed two pick-sixes and had an additional interception.
Zacarius Murray swiped a 22-yard interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter to put the home team up 26-7.
Ben Kamara grabbed his 72-yard interception return in the fourth quarter, marking his second interception.
Upper Iowa made the first move with nine seconds left in the opening period on a short one-yard rush down the right side from quarterback
Darryl Overstreet Jr. The Golden Bears attempted to answer on their first possession of quarter two, but their field goal attempt faltered as
Eddy Latanauskas stepped up and rejected it.
The home squad led 12-0 at the intermission, but the guests were the first to score out of the break. CSP snagged an interception to set them up at the 15-yard line, and two plays later, cut into the lead to only trail 12-7.
The Peacocks put their foot on the gas as they scored two touchdowns in the third segment: a five-yard pitch from Overstreet to
Eddie Burgess in the endzone and Murray's 22-yard interception.
After going up 26-7, Kamara added even more distance between the teams after grabbing his second interception, aided in the act by
Gavin Sweeney.
Henry Vakerics went 3-4 on PATs to boost the scoring spread.
Overstreet Pioneered the Peacock offense with 16-22 completions and two touchdown passes, totaling 161 yards.
Willy Camacho and Burgess each tallied 32 yards receiving, while
Mante Morrow followed with 31.
RJ Wells rushed for 108 yards and
Jayden Mitchell added 44.
UIU's defense tallied two sacks for a loss of 16 yards and added four pass breakups and one quarterback hurry.
Michael Mulherin paced the team with eight tackles, followed by
Trevor Thompson with seven and Murray with six.
Up next, Upper Iowa travels to South Dakota Mines next Saturday, Sep. 14, for a 1 p.m. matchup in Rapid City, S.D.
