In a rare Thursday night appearance, the No. 1 University of Sioux Falls Cougars football team (6-0 overall, 6-0 GPAC) used five touchdown passes from quarterback
Lorenzo Brown (Bristol, Conn.) and a strong defensive effort to easily defeat Briar Cliff University (1-5, 1-4 GPAC), 41-8, in Sioux City, Iowa.
Brown finished the game with 350 yards on 24-36 passing, with five touchdowns and one interception, giving him 18 on the season.
After the opening kickoff, it only took the Cougars four plays to get on the board, as Brown found receiver Jon Ryan (Watertown, S.D.) from 12 yards out, giving them a 7-0 lead only 1:53 into the contest.
When senior Andrew Schoenfelder (Sioux Falls, S.D.) picked off the first of his two passes on the night early in the second quarter, the Cougars added to their advantage as Brown once again found Ryan, this time from 27 yards away, making the score 14-0 with 14:20 remaining until halftime.
Following another USF interception, this time by Dustin Bergmeier (Omaha, Neb.), the Cougars cashed in again, as Brown found running back Ryan Lowmiller (Crystal Lake, Ill.) for a 21 yard touchdown strike, making the score 21-0. Brown then found junior receiver Brad Theilen (Nashua, Iowa) for a 20 yard touchdown pass with 5:50 left, giving them a 28-0 lead.
With 59 seconds left in the half, kicker Braden Wieking (Sioux Falls, S.D.) booted a 25 yard field goal, giving the Cougars a 31-0 lead heading into halftime.
The Chargers held the Cougars scoreless most of the third quarter until Wieking added a 31 yard field goal to make it 34-0.
At the 10:52 mark of the fourth quarter, the Cougars added one more score, as Brown threw his fifth touchdown pass of the game, hitting Theilen for his second score of the game and giving the Cougars a 41-0 lead.
BCU finally got on the board with 1:40 remaining, as quarterback Lehi Tonga found Chase Colvin for a 27 yard touchdown, and a two-point conversion put the score at 41-8, which would be the final.
It was another great defensive effort, as the Cougars held the Chargers to only 224 total yards (42 rushing). Junior defensive lineman Brandon Koolstra (Sioux City, Iowa), returning to his hometown, recorded two tackles for loss (12 yards) and had one sack for nine yards.
Next up for the Cougars is a trip to Grand Forks, N.D., as they will face NCAA Division I University Of North Dakota (2-2), with kickoff being next Saturday, October 17, beginning at 1:00 p.m.
