Continued: Gagliardi gets another record, but Concordia gets the victory

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CAREER GAMES

All-time games coached in college football:

John Gagliardi, St. John's 589

Eddie Robinson, Grambling 588

Amos Alonzo Stagg, Chicago 548

Joe Paterno, Penn State 504

Bobby Bowden, Fla. State 499

Glenn (Pop) Warner, various 457

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COLLEGEVILLE, MINN. — St. John's legendary coach John Gagliardi achieved another milestone Saturday, breaking the career record for college games coached with 589. But the history lesson on this day belonged to Concordia (Moorhead), which escaped with a 9-6 victory in the MIAC opener for both teams.

Concordia players had spent the week remembering what happened to them last year at St. John's, when a succession of early turnovers snowballed into a 52-21 loss.

"That was one of the worst performances we've had,'' said Concordia senior defensive end Clinton Strother. "That was our whole emphasis all week: Don't let them do what they did last year. We talked about that all the time.''

And this time, history didn't repeat itself. The Cobbers scored on their opening possession, driving 85 yards -- all on the ground -- on 13 plays, with senior quarterback Jesse Nelson covering the final 26 yards. From there the Cobbers hung on behind a relentless defense that limited the Johnnies to 85 yards rushing and put constant pressure on the SJU quarterbacks.

That's quarterbacks, plural, because Gagliardi tried three at the position -- starter Michael Crees, Joy Boyle and Jordan Hansel. Each of them had decent stats -- Crees rushed for 51 yards and passed for 119, and Hansel completed five of seven for 56 yards -- but none of them was able to direct a consistent offense.

"They're all pretty good,'' Gagliardi said. "Be nice to have one great one like we've had in the past.''

The message on this day was that it is better to have eight solid defensive linemen than three pretty good quarterbacks. The day belonged to the Cobbers defense, which produced four sacks, seven fumbles (two lost) and countless hurried throws.

"Our defense certainly won the football game,'' Concordia coach Terry Horan said. "We kept pressure on them all day. We have eight D-linemen who are all talented, and we just kept getting fresh people in there as much as possible.''

Strother and Travis Aufderheide each had 1.5 sacks, and Justin Hensch had another. Jon Hanson, one of the backup defensive linemen, was credited with a safety midway through the second period that gave the Cobbers a 9-0 lead.

"Our defensive goal was to stop the run,'' Strother said. "If we stopped the run, we felt our pass rush was good enough to control them.''

The Johnnies, trailing 7-0, had a tremendous goal line stand midway through the second quarter when they stopped Concordia on first-and-goal from the 4-yard line, the final three snaps coming from the 1-yard line.

But Hanson's safety came on St. John's second snap after taking possession, leading to the game's eventual winning points. St. John's drove 69 yards on its next possession, but a bad snap on the PAT left the score 9-6 with 3:19 to play in the half.

Concordia had only 44 yards and two first downs in the second half, but it didn't matter. The Johnnies couldn't crack Concordia's defense.

And Gagliardi was left with a milestone that on this day didn't seem all that important.

"I don't even know what the number of games [coached] is,'' Gagliardi said glumly. "I guess it's another plus. But the big plus would have been a win.''