St. Paul Lutheran is 8-2 against Concordia since September of 2016, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The St. Paul Lutheran Saints will square off against the Concordia Fighting Orioles at 7:00 p.m. St. Paul Lutheran will be hoping to continue their three-game streak of scoring more points each match than the last.
St. Paul Lutheran is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They had just enough and edged Sweet Springs out 62-60.
A big part of St. Paul Lutheran's victory came down to the chemistry between Easton Sheets and his top target Tate Kreisel. Sheets threw for 430 yards and nine touchdowns while completing 73% of his passes while Kreisel picked up 295 receiving yards and seven touchdowns. Kreisel continues to roll, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. A healthy portion of that aerial production (84 yards to be exact) also went to Daniel Bushman.
Meanwhile, Concordia came tearing into Friday's contest with four straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 46.5 points) and they left with even more momentum. They blew past the Chiefs 55-0 at home. The Fighting Orioles might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won five matchups by 29 points or more this season.
Concordia found their leader in underclassman Nephi Hon, who rushed for 65 yards and a touchdown on only five carries, and also threw for 56 yards and two touchdowns. Hon's posted a season-high passer rating of 177.1.
On the defensive side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Concordia's defense and their four sacks. Landon Langkrahr was especially locked on to Santa Fe's QB and sacked him twice. Langkrahr is also on a roll when it comes to total tackles, as he's now made five or more in the last 13 games he's played dating back to last season. Concordia got some further help from Maddix Inman: he made 15 total tackles (5.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Concordia was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 293 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 197 rushing yards in eight consecutive games dating back to last season.
The win got St. Paul Lutheran back to even at 3-3. As for Concordia, their victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 5-1.
Friday's match will pit two of the most dominant signal callers against one another: Sheets and Hon. Sheets has put up some stellar numbers this year, and currently owns excellent season averages 241.8 passing yards and has 24 passing touchdowns on the season. For his part, Hon has averaged 85.2 passing yards and has 10 passing touchdowns on the season.
Everything came up roses for St. Paul Lutheran against Concordia in their previous meeting back in November of 2023, as the team secured a 56-26 win. Will St. Paul Lutheran repeat their success, or does Concordia have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
