ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Saturday, Concordia-St. Paul football (1-4 NSIC, 0-1 South) returns home to host Wayne State (3-2 NSIC, 1-0 South) in an NSIC South Division contest at Sea Foam Stadium with a 1 p.m. kickoff. The weather forecast indicates a beautiful fall afternoon with a high of 58 under sunny skies with light winds out of the south.

THIS WEEK: GOLDEN BEARS HOST WILDCATS
Concordia-St. Paul (1-4 NSIC, 0-1 South) will host Wayne State (3-2 NSIC, 1-0 South) at Sea Foam Stadium in NSIC South Division play. The Golden Bears are coming off a 9-38 loss at #21 Sioux Falls in a game that was within a score to start the fourth quarter. The Golden Bears' other three losses were all by a touchdown, as well with the lone win a 41-point margin of victory on homecoming two weeks ago against Minnesota Crookston. The Wildcats are coming off of a 27-7 homecoming win over #25 Winona State.

SERIES HISTORY: CONCORDIA 9, WAYNE STATE 6
The Golden Bears are 9-6 all-time against the Wildcats and have won three of the last four meetings with Wayne State including last year's 28-24 win on the road in Wayne, Neb. But Wayne State won its last trip to Sea Foam Stadium 48-21 two years ago in 2012 as WSC is 2-1 in three trips to Concordia's sixth year home stadium. But the Golden Bears typically fare well in St. Paul with a 5-3 home record in the series.

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Wayne State comes to town riding high after winning their last two games, including a resounding 27-7 win at home over #25 Winona State on homecoming. The defense was swarming in the win as they collected eight sacks and held the Warriors to just 196 yards of total offense. Zach Osborn spread the ball around to 10 different WSC receivers en route to throwing for 372 yards and a pair of scores. The Wildcats have gone 1-1 on the road so far this season with a blowout 43-20 loss at St. Cloud State in week two and a tight 20-17 win over Minot State.

The Wildcats enter the weekend with the league's top passing offense as they have averaged 314.6 yards per game in the air led by Osborn. Their receiving core features Cole McDaniel and Adam Stark who each rank in the top four in the NSIC in receiving yards with 542 and 497, respectively. McDaniel also leads the league in catches with 37 while Stark ranks fifth with 30.
 
Wayne State's defense, meanwhile, has consistently gotten a strong pass rush which has resulted in a league-best 23 sacks. Jeff Van Den Top has been a huge factor in putting on the pressure of opposing quarterbacks as he has amassed a league-best 8.5 sacks through five games. Abram Walker also registers in at 5.5 sacks, tied for third in the NSIC with Concordia's Dion Roche. WSC had been just as effective protecting their own quarterback as their offensive line has allowed only one sack.

LAST MEETING: 2013, CONCORDIA 28, WAYNE STATE 24
The Golden Bears trailed by 11 points on the road with less than four minutes to play, but prevailed with a 28-24 win over the Wildcats to even their record at 4-4 as the Wildcats fell to 2-6.

With just over five minutes to play, Concordia's comeback chances took a blow when kicker Tom Obarski wasn't able to convert a 42-yard field goal on a sunny, breezy day in northeastern Nebraska with winds around 15 miles per hour.

The Wildcats took over on their own 24 yard line with a 24-13 lead looking to put the game away. But Concordia's defense held strong as Josh Trifunov recovered a Wildcat fumble on the 21 yard line with 3:42 left.

Jared Russo went to work, hitting Jermaine Clemon for a 10-yard touchdown pass just over a minute later and the duo would connect again for the two point conversion.

Armed with all three timeouts, the Golden Bears elected to kick it deep to WSC, starting a drive on its own 25 yard line and going 3-and-out.

Concordia took over on its own 33 yard line, and Russo found Cordell Smith for a 25 yard gain, Clemon twice for gains of 14 and 12 yards before finding Smith for a 21-yard score to take the lead 28-24 with 1:12 to play.

Concordia's defense came through again as the Wildcats drove down to the Concordia 31 yard line with 43 seconds left. Trifunov again came through, sacking WSC quarterback Zach Osborn and forcing a fumble that was recovered by defensive tackle Chris Campbell to seal the win.

Trifunov had a big day with 10 tackles. His sack, forced fumble and fumble recovery late in the fourth quarter sparked Concordia's win. Strong safety Abdullah Asad led the team with 11 tackles while cornerback Jimmy Mireri had five tackles, a big late game pass breakup and a first half interception in the WSC end zone to stop a Wildcats scoring opportunity.

Russo, who engineered the offensive comeback, finished the game 13-24 for 183 yards and two touchdowns. Smith led the team with 99 yards receiving on four catches while Clemon had a team high six catches going for 58 yards.

Tre Spears scored Concordia's first touchdown, a 2-yard run on Concordia's opening drive. He finished with 19 carries for 134 yards.

Corey Cole, this year's opening day starting quarterback, also had a 100-yard kickoff return for touchdown in the contest and would earn NSIC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.

Charlie Davidson led WSC with 122 rushing yards on 27 attempts with a touchdown while Osborn completed 18-36 for 251 yards and two scores with one interception. He completed passes to 10 different targets and no one had more than 63 yards in a balanced passing effort.

LAST WEEK: #21 SIOUX FALLS 38, CONCORDIA 9
For the first time all year, an opposing team held a lead over Sioux Falls, and for the first time all year the Cougars allowed first quarter points. Concordia held a 3-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, were tied 3-3 with the Cougars until the closing seconds of the first half and were within a score (9-17) as the fourth quarter opened.

But Sioux Falls turned on the jets in the fourth, outscoring Concordia 21-0 to finish off the contest.

Senior kicker Tom Obarski delivered three field goals, tying his own school record for the third time in his career and second straight week. He's now converted 10 field goals on the year, tying his individual season high and extending his school record to 36. He has kicked three field goals in a game three times in his career, something that had only been done twice prior to his arrival on campus.

Tre Spears led the offense with 33 touches for 119 combined rushing/receiving yards. He ran 27 times for 86 yards and had six catches for 33 more yards.

Jared Russo completed 21-39 for 167 yards in the game as he found seven different targets led by six receptions by Spears and Jermaine Clemon (79 yards).

Linebackers Jordan Halverson and Cale Dester led the defense with eight tackles each while Halverson had a forced fumble and Dester had one of three recoveries.

Sioux Falls, averaging over 50 points and 500 yards per game entering play, was held to 38 points and 428 yards by the Concordia defense.

HEAD COACH RYAN WILLIAMS
The Golden Bears are led by third year head coach Ryan Williams. Prior to being named head coach, Williams had served as offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator for the previous six seasons at Concordia. He is a Wayzata, Minn. native and played collegiately as starting quarterback and team captain at former Division II-power North Dakota State from 1997-2000.

With a 14-24 career record, Williams is 2-1 against Wayne State. He is 6-12 in his career in NSIC South Division play.

MEET THE 2014 TEAM CAPTAINS
The 2014 team captains are senior Abdullah Asad (SS, Chicago) and junior Jordan Halverson (LB, Fridley, Minn.) on defense and seniors Cordell Smith (WR, Mequon, Wis.) and Tre Spears (RB, Chicago) on offense.

This week's honorary captain is Hayden Vavra (TE, QB & RB, 2007-10), who was recruited as a quarterback and played three different positions in his first three seasons before finishing his career as a two-time All-NSIC First Team and two-time All-Region tight end. 

CORDELL SMITH SEEKS 2,000 CAREER RECEIVING YDS
Senior wide receiver Cordell Smith enters Saturday's game just 47 yards shy of 2,000 in his career, aiming to become the sixth player in program history to reach the milestone. His 23 career receiving touchdowns rank fourth and his 127 receptions rank ninth in team history, as well. This year, Smith has 303 yards on 23 catches with three touchdowns as he hauled in two touchdowns in Concordia's homecoming win over Minnesota Crookston. Smith was also a standout on the basketball court for Concordia, averaging 12.6 points, 5.9 rebounds with 42.4% three-point shooting as a senior. He scored 551 points with 300 career rebounds.

SATURDAY'S KEY: WIN THE LINE OF SCRIMMAGE
A big key to this week's game will be controlling the line of scrimmage. The Wildcats lead the league with 23 sacks while the offensive line has protected the backfield with just one sack allowed on the year.

On the other side, Concordia's offensive line has been solid all year as well, allowing just three sacks to rank 13th nationally while allowing a league best 4.80 tackles for loss per game.  The result has produced the 16th best clock management offense in the country as Concordia has dominated the ball for 33:11 on average per game, second in the conference to UMD.

Concordia's defense will need to disrupt a strong Wayne State offense in the backfield as the Golden Bears are fourth in the league with 2.20 sacks per game and sixth in the league with 7.0 tackles for loss per game.

OBARSKI HANDLES THE KICKING GAME
Senior Tom Obarski has been named All-NSIC as both a kicker and a punter in his Concordia career. Now a senior, he continues to excel in all three phases of kicking. His 36 career field goals is a program record, converting at a 67.9% rate (36-53), he holds the career record for punting yards (7,416) and is second in career punting average (38.6). He's also made 101-105 PAT's.

As a senior, he's 10-of-11 on field goals with a long of 48, he's averaging 37.8 on 26 punts while forcing five fair catches, seven inside the 20 and three of 50-plus yards. He's also had seven kickoff touchbacks on 24 attempts with an average starting field position at the 26-yard line.

In his career, he's 23-27 inside of 40 yards and has made 13 field goals from 40-plus yards with four 50-plus yarders and a long of 59.

He's 5-5 from 40-plus this year, is third in the nation with 2.0 field goals per game and fifth in the nation in field goal percentage (90.9%), leading the league in both.

SPEARS SPRINTS PAST 2,000 YARDS RUSHING
Senior running back Tre Spears became Concordia's eighth 2,000 yard career rusher in week two against Northern State and has now rushed for 2,377 yards moving into sixth on the all-time list. This year he's already set career-highs in the passing game with 21 catches for 117 yards after combining for 75 receiving yards the previous two seasons. He had a career-high 194 combined rushing/receiving yards in week two against Northern State including 150 on the ground. This year, he's the fourth leading rusher in the Northern Sun with 458 yards (91.6/game).

LINEBACKERS LEAD THE CONCORDIA DEFENSE
Concordia's defense is led statistically by its linebackers Jordan Halverson, Josh Trifunov and Nick Jauch. Halverson is sixth in the league with 9.4 tackles per game while Trifunov is close behind in 15th with 8.2 per contest. Jauch's 1.7 tackles for loss per game (8.5 total) is fourth best in the NSIC.

Concordia's linebackers have accounted for 15.5 tackles for loss, while the defensive line has 16.5 and the secondary has 6.0.

SHUTDOWN SECONDARY
Concordia's secondary is ranked eighth in the nation and leads the league against the pass, allowing only 143.2 passing yards per game including holding three opponents (UMD, Mary, UMC) under 100 passing yards. Opposing quarterbacks have found the end zone just six times against Concordia while throwing four interceptions and only have a long of 33 downfield.

The secondary is led by senior strong safety Abdullah Asad and junior cover corner Jimmy Mireri. Asad has 26 tackles, two for loss, a sack, an interception and a fumble recovery while Mireri has 26 tackles, two pass breakups and an interception.

ROOKIE WATCH: UZZIAH DAVIS
The biggest breakout true freshman on the squad so far has been Uzziah Davis, a kick/punt returner and versatile offensive threat utilized in a variety of ways. He leads the conference and is ninth in the country with 481 combined return yards, is second on the team with 104.8 all purpose yards per game and is sixth in the conference with a 25.8 kickoff return average. The big play threat has nine of Concordia's longest 14 plays this season including the longest kickoff return (47) and punt return (43).