Struggling on ‘D’ Concordia spoils home opener
By trade, Shawn Frank is a defensive coach. That makes the Jimmies’ struggling start on that side of the ball particularly frustrating for the first-year head coach.By: By Dave Selvig, The Jamestown Sun, The Jamestown Sun
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By trade, Shawn Frank is a defensive coach.
That makes the Jimmies’ struggling start on that side of the ball particularly frustrating for the first-year head coach.
After giving up 38 points in the season opener, Concordia piled up 42 points and 355 yards of offense in a 42-26 win over the Jimmies in Saturday’s sauna at Rollie Greeno Field.
The JC offense came to life with a productive day, but the defense continued to scuffle.
“My ego isn’t big enough to admit I didn’t have my defense ready to play,” said Frank, also the team’s defensive coordinator. “Too many breakdowns; we couldn’t get off the field on third down. It was really frustrating. I’m going to have to take a long look at things because what we’re doing isn’t working.”
It was an uphill fight for the Jimmies all day.
The Cobbers scored first and never trailed. The Jimmies didn’t go away, however as Lance Johansen’s 2-yard touchdown run two minutes before halftime made it 21-12. Ryan Benke missed the ensuing PAT kick after having the first one blocked following a 5-yard TD pass from Gus Ramasco to Derrick Dohmann.
“Offensively we did some good things. I thought our offensive staff had a really good game plan and our players did a nice job executing,” Frank said. “It wasn’t perfect, but we took a step in the right direction.”
The offense never had a chance to put the Jimmies in front, though.
Every time the Jimmies got close, Concordia answered.
After Ramasco barreled in from the 1-yard line to cut the deficit to nine (35-26) with 5:36 left in the fourth quarter, the Cobbers recovered an onside kick and then marched down the field with Luke Gotta all but icing it with a 3-yard TD dive.
“It’s not just one guy, or one group. We had some issues in the backend again, but as a unit we have to be better. A lot better,” Frank said.
Concordia sophomore quarterback Griffin Neal completed 12 of his 16 attempts in the game for three touchdown passes. The Cobbers turned to the ground game in the second half and finished with 211 yards on 41 carries.
“(Offensively) we were pretty pleased,” Concordia coach Terry Horan said. “Griffin (Neal) played extremely well for a guy making his first start.
“It was a tough, physical game. … We feel pretty good being able to get a win on the road against a quality team.”
Ramasco and the offense was the silver lining for the Jimmies.
Making just his second start, the sophomore from Nevada completed 18 of 34 passes for 227 yards. The Cobbers didn’t have an answer for the combination of Ramasco to Matt Wilson. The two hooked up eight times for 150 yards, including a 34-yard scoring strike in the third quarter. Ramasco did have one costly mistake when he was intercepted in the end zone by Brent Rysdahl in the third quarter. It was the only turnover for the Jimmies. Concordia turned it over just once as well, on a fumble. But the Cobbers only had to punt once. The Jimmies did have the special teams play of the game when punter Craig Anderson boomed a 76-yarder in the second quarter — with the wind at his back — to flip field position.
Junior safety J.T. Petsch had a busy game from his safety spot with a game-high 13 tackles for the Jimmies, who face another tough NCAA D-III team Saturday on the road against Wisconsin-Stout.
“We have to find a way to play four consistent quarters of football,” Frank said. “At this level, you’re not going to be successful if you don’t.”
Concordia 42, Jamestown College 26
Cobbers 14 7 7 14 — 42
Jimmies 6 6 7 7 — 26
Scoring summary
First quarter
CC—Ben Wolf 25 yard pass from Griffin Neal (Ben Wagner kick), 9:11.
JC—Derrick Dohmann 5 pass from Gus Ramasco (kick blocked), 4:06.
CC—Matt Peterson 26 pass from Neal (Wagner kick), 9:34.
Second quarter
CC—Mark Whiting 18 pass from Neal (Wagner kick), 9:34.
JC—Lance Johansen 2 run (kick failed), 2:08.
Third quarter
CC—Wolf 12 run (Wagner kick), 5:30.
JC—Matt Wilson 34 pass from Ramasco (Craig Anderson kick), 1:30.
Fourth quarter
CC—Brett Baune 7 run (Wagner kick), 13:00.
JC—Ramasco 1 run (Anderson kick), 5:36.
CC—Luke Gotta 3 run (Wagner kick), 2:17.
Team statistics
CC JC
First downs 26 21
Rushes-yards 41-211 42-122
Comp-Att-Int 12-16-0 18-34-1
Passing yards 144 127
Total offense 355 349
Punts-avg. 1-52 4-35.8
Fumbles-lost 3-1 1-0
Penalties-yards 11-68 8-84
Individual statistics
Concordia College
Rushing: Brett Baune 16-72, Griffin Neal 7-52, Chris Gilson 4-34, Ben Wolf 6-31, Luke Gotta 5-24, Alex McLean 2-6, Domenic Fraboni 1-2.
Passing: Neal 12-16 144 yards, 3 TDs.
Receiving: Wolf 4-61, Matt Peterson 3-40, Gilson 2-20, Mike Starke 12-5, Mark Whiting 1-18.
Interception: Brent Rysdahl.
Jamestown College
Rushing: Lance Johansen 15-65, Matt Mithaugen 15-38, D’Marco Smith 3-11, Gus Ramasco 8-20.
Passing: Ramasco 18-34 227 yards, 2 TDS, 1 INT.
Receiving: Matt Wilson 8-150, Johansen 3-25, Derrick Dohmann 2-14, Mithaugen 2-11, Michael Sena 1-14, Jacob Erbes 1-8, Tyler Spanton 1-5.
Records: Concordia College 1-0; Jamestown College 0-2.
Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at dselvig@jamestownsun.com
Tags: sports, jimmies, football
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