The Lakeland College football team looked to make it three wins in a row when they took on Concordia University Wisconsin on Sat. Oct. 20 at home on Taylor Field for the annual Cheese Bowl Trophy.

The Muskies started off strong taking the ball all the way to the 17 yard line on the opening drive and took an early lead when Brandon Riesterer converted on the Muskies’ field goal attempt, making the score 3-0. Nevertheless, Concordia didn’t take long to respond by scoring on their second possession with a 47 yard pass that ended in the end zone. Concordia missed the extra point attempt, keeping the score at 6-3.

In the second half, the Muskies came out strong on both defense and offense. Lakeland held Concordia to 290 yards of total offense. The Muskies were able to score a touchdown in the third quarter when Kendrick Burks took the ball and ran 56 yards down the field for a touchdown, putting the Muskies in the lead again with a score of 10-6.

Concordia was able to return the favor, however, when Quarterback Austin Damascke connected with Scott Schieble for a two yard touchdown pass that put Concordia up 13-10 in the game. Concordia was able to convert on a field goal in a later drive to go into the final minutes of the game up 16-10.

The Muskies, however, proved to still have some fight left in them. Led by Quarterback Dylan Van Straten, the Muskies went 62 yards in eight plays. Van Straten found Chris Jaskulski in the end zone, scoring the go ahead touchdown with 1:22 minutes left in the game.

Just as everyone at Taylor field thought the Muskies had the game within their grasp, the routine extra point was wide and no good, keeping the score tied at 16-16. The excitement and heartbreak didn’t stop there as Joe Paul of Concordia took the kick off just 16 seconds after the Muskie touchdown and returned the ball 94 yards to the end zone to win the game.

The game winning touchdown made the final score 23-16.

The loss put the Muskies at an overall record of 2-5 and a 2-2 conference record. Van Straten of the Muskies completed 12-22 passes for 106 yards and had 19 rushes for 69 yards. Patrick Johnson also led the team with nine tackles.

The win for Concordia means the Cheese Bowl Trophy will again return to Mequon with the Falcons. Concordia has an all-time record of 13-8 in the Cheese Bowl.

The Muskies will look to rebound next week in Aurora when they take on Aurora University on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 1 p.m.