ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (1-3) closed out its NSIC North-South Division slate with a 47-7 home loss to Bemidji State (1-3) on Saturday afternoon at Sea Foam Stadium. The Golden Bears open NSIC South Division play next Saturday, October 3 for Homecoming at Sea Foam Stadium with a noon kickoff.

BSU won all three facets of the game in the game's first two minutes, starting with a defensive 3-and-out stop on Concordia's opening drive followed by a 42 yard punt return to the CSP 19 yard line with quarterback Jordan Hein running 19 yards for a score on the first play of the drive.

The opening set the tone for the day, although Concordia's defense would hold its own early after the opening play touchdown. BSU put together solid possessions on its next three drives, but the defense held the Beavers to three field goal attempts, converting two of the three for a 13-0 BSU lead with 9:09 to play in the second quarter.


CU Football vs. Bemidji State 9.26.2015 - Images by Justin Oakman

But on the other side, Concordia's offense couldn't get going as they went without a first down during the same stretch of play.

The Beavers capitalized with field position advantage which led to short drives and BSU was 7-8 in the red zone in the game while going into halftime ahead 27-0.

In the final tally, BSU had a 32-5 edge in first downs and 517-109 in total offense. BSU had the ball for 37:56 to Concordia's 22:04 and converted 10-16 third downs to Concordia's 1-11.

The Golden Bears were able to end the game on a high note with RaQuan Cunnigan and Charles Arnold split a six play, 75 yard drive with three runs each. Cunnigan carried the first three for 29 yards with a long of 20 before Arnold charged through the BSU defense for 46 yards with a long of 35 including an 8-yard touchdown run with 3:50 to play.

The Concordia pass game was led by Jason Oney's five catches for 47 yards with a long of 13 on redshirt freshman Trevor Tillett's first career pass completion in the fourth quarter.

Defensively, Concordia was busy as the Beavers ran 82 plays in the game. Senior inside linebacker Jahphet Grant led the team by producing 18 tackles, the second most in a game in school history and just two shy of Mike Willett's school record of 20 (2012). Breon Hoosier added 13 tackles while Jordan Halverson had 10 to put him within 11 stops of Brian Doyle's career record of 342. Josh Trifunov also added his fourth sack of the season and the defense combined for seven tackles for loss.

Sam Maedke had a strong day punting the football with a 42.8 average on nine punts with a long of 54. His 385 punting yards are the second most in a single game in program history. Special teams also received an early boost from Alquawn Vickers with an 80-yard kickoff return in the first quarter, but the offense wasn't able to punch it in the end zone and the field goal was missed to keep the Golden Bears off the scoreboard early.

Hein led BSU's offense by completing 22-30 for 272 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 34 yards and a score on seven attempts. He found three different players for at least five catches and 60 yards led by Vince Dinkel's 5-76 with two touchdowns. Tahi Nomane led BSU with 116 yards on 24 rushes.