The concordia-st. Paul (1-5, 0-4 nsic) football team put together an impressive comeback attempt at southwest minnesota state (2-4, 2-2 nsic) but fell short 24-19 on saturday evening at mattke field in front of 3,304 fans for a steamy and windy 88 degree homecoming in marshall, minn.

the golden bears turned the ball over on a fumble after a bad snap with 1:32 to play in the game on 4th and 15 from their own 37 yard line after recovering an onside kick with 2:14 remaining.

concordia trailed 24-13 with 3:33 to play when smsu's scott talcott drilled a 46 yard field goal, his fourth field goal of the game. The field goal came after the golden bear defense shut down the mustangs, who took over on downs when the golden bears failed to convert a 4th and 6 on their own 26 yard line.

the defense moved smsu back three yards on the three and out stand, but the mustangs were able to take 2:09 off the clock on three running plays.

with hayden vavra (r-fr., qb, cambridge, minn.) leading the offense, the golden bears continued to fight for their first northern sun victory.

vavra completed a 17 yard pass to tyrone ruffin (jr., wr, plymouth, minn.) on the first play of the drive before connecting with calvin simon (r-fr., wr, shakopee, minn.) three plays later to convert a 3rd and 10.

following an incompletion to ruffin on the next play, vavra drilled a pass to antwon williams (sr., wr, key west, fla.) for 19 yards.

the three completions to three different receivers put the golden bears with a 1st and 10 at the smsu 20 yard line when vavra again hit williams for an eight yard hook-up.

after another incompletion to ruffin, vavra connected with his fourth receiver on the drive, eric tonkin (sr., te, ft. Collins, colo.) for a 12 yard touchdown. Vavra misfired on the ensuing two point conversion.

the touchdown was vavra's first career touchdown pass and put the golden bears to within five, 24-19 after a nine play, 70 yard drive that took just 1:11 off the clock, concordia's second shortest scoring drive of the season (5 plays, 74 yards, 1:09 at central missouri).

after the touchdown, concordia still needed to recover an onside kick to have hopes of completing the comeback. With 2:14 to play, stephan bjerke's (so., k, stillwater, minn.) onside kick was recovered after smsu was unable to control the ball on the concordia 42 yard line.

but on the first play of the drive, vavra was sacked for an eight yard loss, forcing concordia to take their second timeout.

on 2nd and 18, vavra was forced out of the pocket for a three yard gain before ruffin dropped a 3rd and 15 pass attempt.

then came the 4th and 15 fumble with smsu's chris christianson recovering to end the golden bear rally with 1:32 to play.

vavra finished the game 7-19 for 94 yards while rushing for 27 yards on ten attempts. He added a one yard rushing touchdown to go with his touchdown pass. Vavra now has both of concordia's rushing touchdowns this season.

it was a rough start for concorida, as southwest minnesota state jumped ahead with 12 unanswered points in the first quarter with two talcott field goals (27, 23) before zach wysong broke open a 75 yard touchdown reception from josh shudlick. The mustangs failed on their two point conversion attempt.

the two teams played a scoreless second quarter until vavra punched in his one yard touchdown with :52 left in the half to complete an 11 play, 66 yard drive that spanned 5:21. It was concordia's longest scoring drive of the season by over a minute (8 plays, 45 yards, 4:11 at augustana).

but big plays doomed concordia's defense once again as wysong this time broke free for a 75 yard rushing touchdown on the first play from scrimmage in the second half to put smsu up 18-7.

bjerke would add two third quarter field goals (29, 33) with the 29 yard field goal capping off a 17 play, 53 yard drive that took off a new season-high 7:44 off the clock.

talcott had a 29 yard field goal sandwiched in between bjerke's third quarter field goals, giving smsu a 21-13 lead after three quarters.

it was the first time that bjerke booted two field goals in the same game and he finished 2-2 on his field goal attempts.

the nsic preseason offensive player of the year, kole goodchild (sr., qb, west bend, iowa), got the start at quarterback and finished 16-26 for 88 yards through the air and also ran ten times for a season-high 69 yards in the game, averaging 6.9 yards per rush.

two firsts happened for the team in the game, concordia rushed for a season-high 152 yards and for the first time in two full seasons lost a game when rushing for at least 100 yards.

the bears, who passed for 198 yards as a team, also failed to reach 200 passing yards in a game for the first time in 2007.

aside from goodchild (69 yards) and vavra (27 yards), kama johnson (r-fr., rb, brooklyn park, minn.) dashed for 39 yards on 11 attempts including a long of 17.

williams hauled in a season-high nine receptions for 59 yards while ruffin had five catches for 41 yards. Tonkin had three catches for 42 yards including his 12 yard touchdown and simon had htree receptions for 34 yards.

concordia also executed a pair of fake punts with tg schoenberg (fr., p, woodbury, minn.) running for an 11 yard first down in the second quarter and throwing for a 16 yard first down to vavra in the third quarter. Both fake punts led to concordia scores, resulting in 10 points for the golden bears.

the concordia defense surrendered 217 rushing yards on 32 attempts by the mustangs for an average of 6.8 and allowed shudlick to complete 20-32 for 224 yards. Smsu had two 100 yard rushers with paul benesh carrying 16 times for 109 yards and wysong pitching in 12 attempts for 108 yards, 75 coming on the touchdown run. Wysong also had three receptions for 97 yards, 75 of those coming on his touchdown reception.

the unit was led by duy huynh's (jr., lb, apple valley, minn.) nine tackles (five solo) while also making 2.0 tackles for loss. dalton outlaw (jr., db, st. Paul, minn.) and mark mullaney (sr., lb, eden prairie, minn.) each had eight tackles with mullaney recording a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss. shane roach (jr., lb, minnetonka, minn.) contributed seven tackles, two for loss and recovered a fumble.

the loss for concordia snaps a rough road stretch that spanned over half of the 2007 season. The bears played five of their first six games on the road, winning just their season opener at augustana in sioux falls, s.d.

concordia is still searching for the first northern sun victory and will look to get in the win column next saturday, october 13 when they open a three game homestand against msu moorhead at 1:00 p.m. At griffin stadium.

box score - sw minnesota st. 24, csp 19