Concordia drops second consecutive game, first at home

By George L. Jones

The Selma Times-Journal

Concordia didn’t quite get the homecoming it was expecting Saturday.

Playing at Memorial Stadium for the first time in three games, the Hornets took a 32-13 loss from Stillman College.

As strong as the Tigers were, the Hornets were working just as hard against their own cause.

Concordia committed 11 penalties for 128 yards and turned the ball over four times.

One costly mistake was a block in the back that negated what would have been a 38-yard touchdown pass from Ken Johnson to Vernon Daniels with 8:54 to play in the game.

The Hornets fought back from the mistake four plays later when Johnson hit John Halman with a 16-yard pass in the end zone. The score cut Stillman’s lead to 25-13 with less than eight minutes to play.

“Penalties was what killed us, in a nutshell,” said Concordia coach Shepherd Skanes. “But we’re not losing to teams, we’re losing to programs. And until we get established, we’re going to keep losing to programs. Last year, we were new, and nobody knew what we had.

“Now everybody’s got films on us.”

The loss dropped the Hornets to 1-2 and gave them the second two-game losing streak in their two-year history. They lost consecutive games to Millsaps College and Webber University Sept. 17 and 24 last season.

Stillman (1-1) asserted itself right from the very start of the game and kept doing so all night long.

The Tigers opened the game with a 60-yard drive that ate up nearly 3 1-2 minutes and capped it with a 27-yard Petar Obradovic field goal.

Stillman’s first touchdown came on an 8-yard pass from Charles McCullum to Kenneth Brown with 13:33 left in the second. A missed extra point made the Tigers’ lead 9-0.

Two plays after Brian Witherspoon intercepted a Johnson pass midway through the second, the Tigers scored when receiver Daron Clark got past the Concordia secondary for a 51-yard touchdown.

With 31 seconds left in the first half, Stillman struck again. Receiver Marcus Bryant fought off Corey Rue for a jump ball and went in for a 62-yard touchdown. Another failed Obradovic PAT made the lead 22-0.

Concordia punctuated the end of the half when Johnson hit Titus Ryan with a 42-yard pass as the clock went to zeros.

Concordia’s fortune seemed to go further south to start the third quarter.

The first snap of the half resulted in a fumble that Stillman defensive lineman Irving McGuire recovered.

Stillman turned the turnover into a 20-yard field goal.

Concordia finally lit up its side of the scoreboard with 7:59 left in the third. Fernadus Edwards’ 11-yard run made it a 25-7 game.

The Hornets missed a scoring opportunity nearly four minutes later when a 26-yard field goal attempt by Harrison Ellison went wide.

Misfortune showed again for the Hornets later in the game. A blocked punt that would have given Concordia the ball inside the Tigers’ 10 was waived off because of a roughing the kicker call, giving Stillman a first down.

Stillman’s final offensive blow came on a 13-yard pass to Bryant with 4:40 left to play. Bryant finished with a game-high 105 yards on four receptions

Johnson finished the game 16-of-25 with 246 yards, one TD and two interceptions.

DeAngelo Surls led the Hornets in rushing with 58 yards on five carries.