ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (1-8 NSIC, 0-5 South) fell 49-0 at home to #10 Sioux Falls (8-1 NSIC, 4-1 South) on Saturday afternoon on Halloween at Sea Foam Stadium.

It was the first time Concordia has been shut out at Sea Foam Stadium since it opened in 2009 and the first time the team has been shut out overall since the 2009 season opener to Minnesota Duluth (56-0), breaking a streak of 74 consecutive games without being shut out.

The Golden Bears will host Southwest Minnesota State next Saturday, November 7 at noon for senior day to close out the home schedule. Concordia heads to Augustana for the season finale in two weeks on November 14 for a 1 p.m. kickoff.


CU Football vs. University of Sioux Falls 10.31.2015 - Images by Justin Oakman

Facing one of the top offenses in the country, Concordia's defense came out with a strong game plan early to slow down the Cougars. The Golden Bears forced a pair of 3-and-outs to start the game. Multiple players on defense stepped up in the early going with Jimmy Mireri making a pass breakup on a 2nd-and-4 followed by Jahphet Grant's hurry on 3rd down ending the opening drive. Hank Goff came up with a big hurry on the second drive to force an incompletion on 3rd and three from the USF 14.

Dominic Nabak led the defense on the day by matching his career high of 11 tackles while Mireri had seven tackles and a pair of pass breakups. David Reed had a career-high 3.5 tackles for loss among his six tackles.

Although CSP's offense wasn't able to get rolling early, sophomore punter Sam Maedke's 34-yard punt pinned the Cougars at their own five yard line for their third drive of the day as Concordia was winning the field position battle early on.

Maedke averaged 39.1 yards while tying the school record of 12 punts in a game for a record 469 yards. He had a long of 56 among his two punts of 50-plus, four fair catches and three inside the 20.

But that's when USF's offense opened up as quarterback Luke Papillion completed an 11-yard pass followed by an 84-yard touchdown to Brady Rose. It was the first of three first quarter touchdown connections between the pair as the Cougars mounted a 21-0 lead at the quarter break.

Papillion finished the day completing 20-33 for 306 yards and six touchdowns while rushing three times for 38 yards. Rose had 10 catches for 159 yards and three touchdowns.

While USF passed for 349 total yards as a team, the Cougars also produced 167 yards on the ground led by Jason Towns' nine carries for 64 yards. Towns is the younger brother of Concordia alum and four year starting offensive tackle Steven Davis.

The Golden Bears had some success on the ground against USF as Darius Chapes (12-33), Charles Arnold (12-27) and Alex Carr (7-25) combined for 75 yards on 31 attempts but three sacks and a team fumble worked against CSP's final team rushing line (42-76).

The ground game helped Concordia win the time of possession 33:09 to 26:51.

Concordia's quarterback tandem of Trevor Tillett (4-9) and Ben Schramski (4-12) combined to complete 8-21 for 65 yards. Jason Oney was the top target of the day with two catches for 34 yards, both going for 17 yards.

Return specialist Alquawn Vickers finished the day with 148 all-purpose yards on eight touches - all coming via kick or punt returns as he has now topped the 1,000-yard combined return yard total to lead Division II. He had three punt returns for 35 yards with a long of 28 and five kick returns for 113 yards and a long of 26.