Eureka Embracing Homecoming Challenge Against Concordia Chicago
EUREKA – Some football coaches don't have an appreciation for Homecoming week.
They think of it as a distraction and do everything they can to instill to their team that it's just another week.
Eureka football coach Kurt Barth doesn't see it that way. He embraces the traditions and opportunities that come with Homecoming every year.
"When I look back on my time as a player or even a coach, it's one of the funnest times on a campus," he said. "We have some Hall of Fame members being inducted this weekend, some former players and teams, you're hoping to get a lot of alums back, and that's the fun part of being in college football. You get some of your former players back and you get some of the community back, and you get people excited about it. It should be the funnest week that you have in the fall."
The Red Devils are looking to soak in every experience this week, culminating with the 4 p.m. showdown against Concordia Chicago on Saturday at McKinzie Field. It will be the 42nd known Homecoming game in program history, and the team will be looking to pick up its eighth Homecoming win in its last 10 tries.
Barth's squad awaits a Concordia Chicago team led by a new coaching staff that, with the exception of a blowout at Aurora, has been quite competitive this season.
The Cougars won their first two games of the 2021 fall season, picking up a 30-7 road win at Beloit to open the year and a 26-2 triumph at Finlandia in Week 2. After getting shutout by Aurora 70-0 to open Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play, the team fell short against Concordia Wisconsin, 28-19, last week.
The Red Devils have won two of three meetings against the Cougars since joining the NACC in 2018. They bested them 26-3 last spring and fell one-point shy in a Homecoming heartbreaker two years ago.
"While it's a familiar opponent, it's kind of an unknown at the same time," Barth said. "But they're off to a strong start, they're doing some good things, they've got some very nice players, so it's going to be a challenge. Every week is a clean slate, so you can throw records out the window"
Eureka is coming off a 49-29 loss at Benedictine in Week 4. The Red Devils were right there with the Eagles for the entire first half, but the team couldn't sustain that level of play and execution in the second, and the home team took advantage of it. After leading after both the first quarter and the second quarter, Eureka was oustcored by Benedictine 21-0 in the third quarter.
"We thought going in that we'd have some opportunities and we certainly showed that we did and we certainly showed that we could play with them," Barth said. "But what we didn't do is sustain in the second half."
On the defensive side, the Red Devils are looking for more physicality, more pressure up front and guys finishing plays when they have the opportunity. Offensively, they need more consistent execution, particularly when the defense is struggling to get stops. Barth says that he likes how his team has responded at practice this week.
"We've got to learn from it," he said. "Whether you win or lose, in any game, there's always an opportunity to learn from it and make improvements and get better."
On the positive side of the ledger, the Red Devils saw sophomore quarterback Lukas Tinkham have a strong showing in the first start of his career. Stepping in for injured junior quarterback Nathan Garard, he threw for 202 passing yards and three touchdowns on 22-for-41 without committing a turnover. On Monday, he was named the Eureka College Scholar-Athlete of the Week.
Freshman wide receiver Sebastian Hill had a breakout game as well, hauling in 10 catches for 73 yards and his first two collegiate touchdowns. Senior receiver Pierce Bradford turned in another high-caliber performance that Red Devil fans have come to expect, racking up 122 receiving yards on 10 receptions and coming up with his seventh touchdown of the season.
Defensively, the team held Benedictine to 14 points in the first half, and the special teams unit produced on both ends of the kicking game.
There was one stretch of the game in the first half in particular that Barth wants to see the Red Devils emulate more often.
Trailing 14-13 with less than a minute to play, Eureka punter Sam Bartels skied a 56-yard punt to put Benedictine deep in its own territory. Then, on 2nd and 3 at the 17, Eureka put pressure on the quarterback, forcing him to scramble to the right and heave the ball downfield. Junior safety Jack Arnett picked it off at the Benedictine 42 and recorded his first interception of the season.
With 32 seconds remaining in the half, Tinkham promptly completed short passes on four of the next plays – three to Hill and one to Bradford. The receiver got out of bounds on the last three, with Hill's nine-yard reception bringing Eureka to the Benedictine 20 with seven seconds to play.
That gave the Red Devils time to set up freshman kicker Steven Bartkus for a career-long 37-yard field goal and give the Red Devils a 16-14 lead just before half.
"That, to me, is a great thing to see," Barth said. "You can run those drills in practice, but it's a lot different when the lights are on and the clock is going, and those guys all executed that perfectly at the end."
