WINONA, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul football team (2-9 NSIC, 1-6 South) dropped their 2012 season finale 49-31 at Winona State (9-2 NSIC, 6-1 South) on Saturday afternoon at Verizon Wireless Stadium. The Golden Bears led 10-0 after the first quarter before the Warriors scored 42 consecutive points in the second and third quarters to put the game away.
Concordia dominated the opening quarter, coming out strong against a team looking to stay in the NCAA Super Region Playoff picture, while maintaining its standing as the Northern Sun's top Mineral Water Bowl participant should they not receive a playoff invite.
Concordia had other plans in a place it has never won at before. The Golden Bears held Winona State to just 22 yards of total offense and two first downs on 14 plays. Meanwhile, the offense was solid early on with 121 yards on 19 plays with 10 first downs in the first quarter.
The strong early stats resulted in a 10-0 lead off the heels of a 26-yard
Jason White (Davenport, Iowa) touchdown run and a 32-yard field goal by
Tom Obarski (Burnsville, Minn.).
White finished the day with 11 carries for 83 yards and two touchdowns. Concordia's run game produced 226 yards on 36 attempts and three touchdowns.
Tre Spears (Chicago, Ill.) led the team with 13 carries and 92 yards and is the NSIC's fourth-leading rusher with 885 yards.
Defensively,
Zach Moore (Chicago, Ill.) had the first of three sacks and a pair of his 4.5 tackles for loss in the first quarter as he set new career-highs in both areas. Moore finishes as the NSIC sack and tackle for loss leader with 14.0 and 21.0, respectively.
His sack total is the second most in a season in school history, just one off the school record and the 21.0 TFLs are fifth in the season record list.
Moore teamed up with
Chris Campbell (San Marcos, Calif.) on the defensive line to form a hard to stop tandem today. Campbell added career-highs across the board with 10 tackles, 3.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks alongside Moore.
Additionally, the pressure up front helped the secondary succeed as
Mike Willett (Woodbury, Minn.) hauled in an interception to stop Winona State from driving into Golden Bear territory at the CU 25 yard line. Willett was second on the defense with nine tackles.
Things started to turn for the worse in the second quarter as Concordia committed the first of two turnovers on an interception deep in their own territory. But the defense held strong as Campbell came up with a third down sack and the Warriors missed the field goal to keep Concordia in front.
However, the Warriors started to benefit from field position and would put in their first score with 9:12 to play in the half.
Concordia's offense began to sputter as Obarski punted three times in the quarter with the Warriors scoring touchdowns on all three drives that began on Obarski punts.
Obarski had a solid day punting overall, averaging over 45 yards on his seven punts with two over 50-yards including a 64-yarder.
Trailing 21-10 as the second half began, Concordia's defense opened the third quarter with back-to-back sacks by Moore, the second resulting in a forced fumble to back WSU up with a 4th and 15 on their own 20.
Concordia's offense got back in gear by driving into WSU territory but Obarski missed wide left on a long 54-yard field goal attempt, keeping WSU ahead by two scores.
Winona State capitalized on the strong field position after the missed field goal, and marched for a touchdown before getting their second interception and turning it into another score two plays later.
Just like that, a game that was on the verge of being 21-13 was suddenly a 35-10 margin with 6:05 to play in the third quarter.
Concordia got things going again in the fourth quarter, starting early with a 28-yard touchdown pass from
James Peterson (Blaine, Minn.) to
Tre Mason (League City, Texas) as the duo had just connected for a 13-yard third down conversion the previous play.
Peterson was 13-of-28 for 127 yards and the lone touchdown with two interceptions while being sacked five times. Mason had just the two catches for 41 yards. Peterson finished the year with 21 touchdown strikes, just one shy of the school record. Mason finished with 661 yards and seven receiving scores to lead the team.
Concordia's defense held WSU on downs on the next possession, with
Willie Nunnery (Madison, Wis.) and Campbell stuffing Rayon Simmons on a 4th and 1 from the WSU 45 yard line.
Peterson and
Dustin Christen (St. Cloud, Minn.) converted an 18-yard pass on 4th and 13, and on the next play
Ronald Zollicoffer (Chicago, Ill.) broke a 30-yard touchdown run to give the Golden Bears momentum but still trailing 42-24 with 8:42 to play.
The Warriors added another touchdown before the Golden Bears scored for the final time on a 40-yard dash by White, his second long touchdown run of the game, with just six seconds left in the game.
After holding Winona State to -6 rushing yards in the first quarter, the NSIC's all-time rushing leader, Rayon Simmons and the Warrior offense bruised their way to 249 more yards in the next three quarters to finish with 243 on the day. Simmons led the way with 184 yards and two touchdowns and added 17 receiving yards and a third touchdown.
Simmons was the NSIC league leader as a senior with 1,586 yards and 18 touchdowns.
Winona State also passed for 206 yards as John Teigland completed 18-of-29 with four touchdowns. Two of his scoring strikes went to Sean Hertz, who led WSU with five catches for 84 yards.
Concordia's top receiver on the day was their tight end,
Nate Thienes (Lake Elmo, Minn.), with six catches for 55 yards and a long of 20.
The Golden Bears finished with just two wins this season but had five games decided by a touchdown or less and were competitive well into the game in all 11 contests including holding leads over Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State and Winona State.
It's the ninth time in school history Concordia football has produced two wins or less and the first time since its first year of Division II football in 1999 with a 2-8 finish.
