Muskies Roll To 49-7 Homecoming Victory
Oct. 18, 2003
The Lakeland College Muskies pounded the Concordia College Cougars (IL) 49-7 Saturday afternoon in Sheboygan. The Homecoming victory improved Lakeland to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the Illini-Badger Football Conference, while Concordia dropped to 0-7 and 0-4.
The game also marked a homecoming of sorts for former Muskie football coach Jeff Hynes, who is now the head coach at Concordia. Hynes was a Lakeland coach the past 10 years, including the last four as the head coach.

Lakeland jumped out to a commanding 21-0 lead after one period of play. Running back Marcus Denham scored the first of his three touchdowns on the day by punching it in from three yards out with 11:29 to play on Lakeland's first drive. The drive covered 56 yards on nine plays and took just 3:31 off the clock.

Denham scored again less than four minutes later on a 14 yard pass from quarterback Brent Luebke. That completed a short six-play, 42 yard drive that ate up just 2:35 off the clock. With 7:53 to play in the quarter the Muskies already owned a 14-0 lead.

Luebke had a thrilling 20 yard touchdown run with 2:19 left in the quarter to make it 21-0. This drive was longer at 85 yards but still only took seven plays and 2:59 off the clock as Lakeland's offense was clicking on all cylinders.

Denham completed his fabulous day by scoring for a third time with 10:57 to play in the second quarter. His 20 yard run capped a six-play, 80 yard drive that took 3 minutes off the clock.

As if shutting down the Cougar offense wasn't enough, the Lakeland defense decided to get in the scoring act. Just over a minute later, with 9:39 to go in the half, Courtney Gatlin recovered a blocked Concordia punt in the end zone to make it 35-0. Eric Royal crashed through the line to block the punt and give Gatlin the opportunity.

The Muskies moved the score to 42-0 at half with another defensive gem. This time Quentin Braswell returned an interception 60 yards with 6:03 to play.

"Our defense played outstanding today and our offense did what it had to do to put the game out of reach with no turnovers," said first year head coach Jim Zebrowski.

Lakeland completed their scoring midway through the third quarter on a one yard run by Aaron Barrie. This completed a four play, seven yard drive that followed a Muskies fumble recovery by Will Schmidt deep in Cougar territory.

Concordia scored their only points of the game with 6:42 to go in the game. Aaron Kuester punched it in from one yard out to complete a seven play, 80 yard drive.

The Muskies won nearly every major statistical battle. They out-gained Concordia 383 yards to 259 and rushed for a staggering 266 yards to the Cougars 99. Lakeland completed just 12 of 17 passes for 117 yards while Concordia completed 19 of 40 passes for 160 yards. The Muskies also accumulated 19 first downs to Concordia's 15.

Individually, Luebke led the rushing attack with 71 yards on 9 carries while Denham had 67 yards on 14 carries. Luebke also completed 9 of 11 passes for 105 yards and the touchdown to Denham. Jeff Taff led the receivers once again with 5 catches for 27 yards. Punter Casey Kedrowski had a stellar day, averaging 43.5 yards on 6 punts. Kuester led the Concordia attack with a solid 120 yard effort on 20 carries.

Lakeland's next game is Saturday, October 25th when they host Aurora University in their final home game of the year. Kickoff is set for 1:30p.m.