WINONA, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul football (5-6 NSIC, 4-3 South) completed the 2014 season on a four game winning streak with a 31-28 win at Winona State (4-7 NSIC, 1-6 South) in front of 1,606 spectators at Warrior Stadium on Saturday afternoon. It was Concordia's first win in seven trips to Warrior Stadium, and the second straight win over the Warriors in the overall series.

The four game winning streak propelled the program to a third place finish in the eight team NSIC South Division and an eighth place finish in the 16-team overall NSIC standings. The strong finish came after Concordia was 1-6 on the season including 0-3 in the south division after being picked eighth out of eight in the NSIC South Division and 12th out of 16 overall in the NSIC Preseason Coaches Poll.

It's the first four game winning streak for the program since a five game streak in the 2005 NSIC Championship campaign that also included a win over Winona State.

Redshirt freshman quarterback engineered the victory under center as a dual threat signal caller. He rushed 12 times for 117 yards (9.8 per carry) and completed 10-13 for 131 yards through the air. He combined for three touchdowns, two through the air  to build a 14-7 first quarter lead, and added one on the ground early in the third quarter to extend the lead to 24-14.

His passing efforts came through big early in building the lead, completed 5-5 for 72 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter and was 7-10 for 98 yards and two touchdowns at the break.

In the second half, the run game took over behind Concordia's physically dominant offensive front. Senior Tre Spears handled the workload with 28 carries for 131  yards and his fourth quarter 11 yard touchdown run gave Concordia a 31-21 lead with 13:13 to play.

The third-straight 100-yard rushing performance gave Spears 1,254 yards on the season and Concordia's first-ever NSIC rushing title since joining the league in 1999. He finished as the ninth-leading rusher in conference history with 3,160 yards in NSIC contests over his four years and the program's fourth leading rusher with 3,173 yards in all career games played.

Senior tight end Jermaine Clemon also had a milestone day in his final game, with three catches for 52 yards and a 27-yard first quarter touchdown that tied the game at 7-7 with 4:18 to play in the quarter. The three catches put him at 100 for his career, becoming the 10th player to reach 100 career catches and the first tight end in team history to achieve the feat.

Schramski's other touchdown strike went to senior Cordell Smith, who cradled the one-handed catch in his left hand with a WSU defensive back draped around his right arm for a 35-yard touchdown. Smith finished his career with 147 catches (6th), 2,237 yards (5th) and 26 receiving touchdowns (3rd) with 27 total touchdowns. He had four catches for 65 yards to lead Concordia's receivers in his final game.

The Golden Bear defense held strong against a potent Winona State offense as well. Senior Nick Jauch led the effort with 10 tackles, 4.0 for loss and 2.0 sacks as the Golden Bears racked up nine tackles for loss and five sacks. Junior Dion Roche added 3.0 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks on four total tackles, also breaking up a pass attempt. Jordan Halverson added six tackles, one for loss and finished the year with 108 tackles - the most in a season in Concordia's Division II era (1999-present).

But the Warriors competed to the final seconds in attempting to comeback to end their three game losing streak. With Concordia leading 31-21, the Warriors started a drive at their own 19 yard line with 2:13 to play. Facing a 4th and 16 from their own 26, Warrior quarterback Jack Nelson threw an incomplete pass under pressure but a roughing the passer penalty kept the drive alive with 1:31 to play.

From there, the Warriors capitalized with a 10-yard touchdown pass with 20 seconds left, bringing the margin to 31-28.

The Warriors onside kick provided added drama as numerous players from each team wrestled for possession under the pile before Concordia was awarded possession and the right to run out the clock.

The difference in the final margin was senior Tom Obarski's 42-yard field goal with 2:49 to play in the second quarter. Obarski finished the year as the league leader by a margin of six with a school record 18 field goals made and in percentage at 85.7% (18-21). He was also the only kicker in the league to convert every point after touchdown, going 27-for-27.

Concordia and Winona State each converted 19 first downs and had a very similar total offense as Concordia had 378 to WSU's 371. The Golden Bears had their fifth 200-plus yard rushing performance as a team with 247 on 47 attempts while holding WSU to 130 rushing yards.

Concordia also executed better on third down (6-12 to 3-12) and had five sacks while giving up none.

Lastly, the Golden Bears and Warriors split the turnover battle at one each, moving Concordia to 5-1 when either splitting or winning the turnover differential.

Concordia also dominated the clock with 32:54 of time of possession to 27:06 for WSU. Concordia had at least 32 minutes of clock time with the ball eight times this year and won the time of possession battle nine times.