MARSHALL, Minn. - Senior running back Tre Spears (Chicago, Ill.) ran for a career-high 247 yards as Concordia-St. Paul (3-6 NSIC, 2-3 South) rushed for 345 yards in a 38-20 road victory over Southwest Minnesota State (2-7 NSIC, 1-4 South) on a windy afternoon at Schwan Regional Event Center.

Spears compiled his 247 yards on 37 carries and scored a pair of first half rushing touchdowns. He finished just 11 yards shy of the single-game rushing record as his total was the second most in a game in team history. He now has 917 yards on the season as he seeks a first career 1,000 yard rushing season with two games remaining.

He'll return home with the rest of the Golden Bears next Saturday, November 8 for senior day at 1 p.m. against Augsutana.

Spears and the Golden Bears set the tone on the game's opening drive. Despite losing the coin toss and the wind advantage in the game's most important quarters, Concordia came out and used a physically dominant offensive line and the bruising efforts of Spears in the run game to sway the momentum.

Concordia ran the ball 11 times on a 13-play, 75-yard opening drive that took 8:07 off the clock and kept the high-powered Mustang offense off the field for over half of the first quarter when SMSU had the major wind advantage.

But most importantly, Concordia punched the ball in the end zone on a 2-yard rushing touchdown by Spears to take the 7-0 lead.

Concordia's defense continued the trend in dominating the line of scrimmage, holding the Mustangs to a 3-and-out on SMSU's first drive. The Mustangs would pin Concordia at its own three yard line as SMSU looked to sway the field position in its favor in the first quarter.

But the Concordia offense continued to use physicality to keep the upper hand. The Golden Bears ran another 4:37 off the clock and although they didn't score, the Mustangs were left with only 27 seconds of wind.

SMSU tied the game in those 27 seconds, though, as a 35-yard touchdown pass tied the game.

In the second quarter, Concordia continued to use dominance on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball to pull away. The 35-yard touchdown by SMSU would account for half of the Mustangs yards on 16 total plays in the first half while Concordia's offense had 41 plays for 276 yards.

Early in the second quarter, redshirt freshman quarterback Ben Schramski connected with senior Cordell Smith for a 40-yard touchdown as Smith tipped the ball up to himself before getting into the end zone. Spears added another 2-yard touchdown run late in the half and senior Tom Obarski drilled a 41-yard field goal at the end of the half for a 24-7 lead.

Schramski completed 12-17 for 143 yards through the air in guiding the team to its second straight win in just his third career start. Smith had three catches for 62 yards.

In the third quarter, the Mustangs were able to score twice early, using a 66-yard touchdown run and a 7-play, 75-yard drive that took only 1:23 off the clock to get back into the game.

But in between, sophomore Darius Chapes darted 26 yards for a touchdown and after the two scores, junior linebacker Jordan Halverson took an interception back 28 yards for a touchdown to give Concordia an 18-point lead.

Chapes finished with 53 yards on nine carries while Schramski and Bruce Russell added 23 and 22 carries apiece.

Concordia's defense held the Mustangs scoreless the rest of the way for the victory.

While Concordia's offensive line helped pave the way for 345 rushing yards and 488 yards of total offense, the physical defense held SMSU to just 340 yards of total offense including 117 passing yards. SMSU quarterback Charlie Kern came into play today averaging 236.2 passing yards per game.

The physical play up front on both sides led to one of the biggest time of possession margins possible as Concordia had 42:35 to SMSU's 17:25.

Concordia also forced three turnovers and didn't commit any, with two interceptions and a fumble recovery. While Halverson's interception was returned for a touchdown, the fumble recovery in the fourth quarter was on the Concordia 3-yard line to stop an SMSU scoring chance. All three turnovers came in the second half after SMSU had the Concordia lead down to 31-20, as well.

Concordia's defense put up three sacks and six tackles for loss as Josh Trifunov and Halverson each led the team with eight tackles while Dion Roche added six. Halverson and Roche each had a sack while Trifunov had a half sack. Roche also blocked an extra point and had two tackles for loss.

SMSU's defense was led by Jared Twedt's 17 tackles while Casey Hertz had 13.

Tyler Tonderum led SMSU's offense with 151 rushing yards on 15 attempts with a 66-yard touchdown run. Nathaniel Huot had four catches for 65 yards and a pair of touchdown catches.