ELKHART — Like a pack of muscle cars, Concord revved its way to 47-0 Northern Lakes Conference football victory at Memorial Friday at Charger Field.

The Class 4A No. 5-ranked Minutemen (2-0, 1-0) flew around on defense, offense and special teams in besting the Crimson Chargers (0-2, 0-1) and made the first move toward defending their NLC title.

“We’ve got a lot of kids with motors,” said Concord coach Tim Dawson. “That’s how it has to be.”

The Minutemen held Memorial to three first downs and threw them for lost yardage on 11 different plays.

“Our defensive line was relentless,” said Dawson, who saw quarterback press lead to three Concord interceptions (two by Desmond Love and one by Kyle Moreno). “Our defensive coaches had our kids well-prepared.”

Ryan McKibbin made four touchdown passes — two each to Franko House and Dakota Simon — and the Minutemen also got a TD pass from backup QB Trevor Wilmore to Adam Glanders, a 23-yard run by reserve running back Larry Smith and a pair of field goals by Ryan Tepe (35 and 22 yards) to go with his five extra points.

“We wanted to create some identity tonight,” said Dawson. “These kids still want to defend their title.”

Concord led 27-0 at halftime and Dawson began taking out his first string with about eight minutes to go in the third quarter.

The Minutemen used nine different ballcarriers and seven different players caught a pass. Concord also used Cullen Fisher and Danny McMahon at QB.

Memorial coach Bill Roggeman came away impressed with the victors.

“Concord is worthy of their ranking,” said Roggeman. “They have some physical players defensively. They gave us fits all night trying to block them.”

Roggeman did see improved from Week 1’s 51-3 loss to crosstown rival Central.

“I was happy with our effort,” said Roggeman. “The kids played harder than last week. That’s a good thing.”

Nick Youngs started at quarterback for the Chargers. Blake Kramer, who was cleared medically to practice Wednesday, spelled him and got most of the snaps under center.

“Youngs prepared well enough to be the starter,” said Roggeman. “We wanted to get Blake back in there and get his feet wet. We were also able to get (Trevor) Trowbridge a quarter or so of experience (at quarterback).”

Concord 47, Memorial 0

Scoring by Quarters

Concord 17 10 14 6 — 47

Memorial 0 0 0 0 — 0

School — Scoring Play

First Quarter

C — Franko House 37 pass from Ryan McKibbin; Ryan Tepe kick, 11:06.

C — Tepe 35 field goal, 7:18.

C — Dakota Simon 19 pass from McKibbin; Tepe kick, 3:05.

Second Quarter

C — Tepe 22 field goal, 3:26.

C — House 10 pass from McKibbin; Tepe kick, 1:41.

Third Quarter

C — Simon 15 pass from McKibbin; Tepe kick, 9:48.

C — Adam Glanders 7 pass from Trevor Wilmore; Tepe kick, 4:13.

Fourth Quarter

C — Larry Smith 23 run; run failed, 1:31.

Officials: Mike Banashak, Mishawaka; Mike Otolski and Dan Cochran, both of South Bend; Don Zion, Granger; Geoff Cocanower, Nappanee.



Team Statistics Co Me

Net yards rushing 209 7

Net yards passing 177 47

Total Yards 386 54

First Downs 27 3

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 0-0

Penalties 3-20 5-62

Individual Leaders

Concord: Rushing — Ryan McKibbin 6-53, Jackson Marlow 7-51, DuWhan Alford 11-50, Trevor Wilmore 5-34, Larry Smith 5-31. Passing — McKibbin 11-19-142 (1 int.), Wilmore 3-4-29 (0 int.), Cullen Fisher 0-2-0 (0 int.), Danny McMahon 1-1-6 (0 int.). Receiving — Franko House 3-51, Dakota Simon 3-36, Timothy Yoder 2-35, Chris Martin 2-30. Interceptions — Desmond Love 2, Kyle Moreno.

Memorial: Rushing — Brody Slone 3-9. Nick Youngs 1-8, Jaylin Rhodes 3-8. Passing — Youngs 1-4-14 (0 int.), Blake Kramer 5-13-24 (3 int.), Trevor Trowbridge 2-2-9 (0 int.). Receiving — Jared Peek 2-22, Kane Rickey 1-9. Interception — Rickey.