ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Saturday at noon, Concordia-St. Paul (1-6 NSIC, 0-3 South) hosts #15 Sioux Falls (6-1 NSIC, 2-1 South) at Sea Foam Stadium in NSIC South Division play.

POTENTIAL FOR MORE RAIN
In home game number five, Concordia is bracing for its third rainy home game and fifth game in rainy conditions overall including three straight weeks. As of late Wednesday morning, there is a 60 percent chance of rain with high temperatures reaching the mid 60's. More specifically, the day will feature mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms and wind ranging around 14 mph SSW.

ONLINE COVERAGE
Fans unable to make it to Sea Foam Stadium can watch live online for free in Concordia's GameCentral portal that also features dynamic live stats and in-game twitter functionality (tweet #BeGolden & #NSICFB) courtesy of the NSIC's agreement with Stretch Internet. The game will be produced by School Space Media with the voice of the Golden Bears, Dan Flanagan calling the action. Flanagan is a graduate of Fordham University with a degree in broadcasting where he was able to gain experience covering Fordham's Division I programs. The St. Paul native has been the voice of the Golden Bears since 2008.

Additionally, live stats are available as is the NSIC live scoreboard to follow league action in real-time.

STREAMING DEVICES
The School Space Media streamed webcast is now available through widely used streaming devices like the Roku, Amazon FireTV, Apple TV and Android TV. Simply search for NSIC to find the Stretch Internet application for the conference to watch games on your TV and in HD (where available).

TOUGH HOME SCHEDULE
The Golden Bears will be playing their third straight home game against a top-15 team in the country according to the AFCA Division II Top-25 Coaches Poll. On homecoming, it was #6 Minnesota State (now #4), last week against #13 Winona State (now #11) before this week's clash with #15 Sioux Falls whose only loss was at home to Winona State two weeks ago. It's been one of the more challenging home schedules on record outside of the Minot State game where CSP is 3-0 at Sea Foam Stadium against the Beavers. Following Minot State, who CSP defeated 24-0 in week one, CSP has hosted three opponents it has yet to defeat since moving back to campus at Sea Foam Stadium in 2009: St. Cloud State (0-3), Minnesota State (0-5) and Winona State (0-4) with games against Sioux Falls (0-2) and Southwest Minnesota State (0-1) on the horizon to finish out the season for a combined record of 0-15 against the five teams aside from Minot State.

The grueling home slate is just over half of what has been an overall strength of schedule that ranks 23rd in Division II football through last week's games, and when factoring in future opposition is the 15th-toughest schedule to compete against in the country.

TRENDING THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Over the past two weeks which has featured the return of freshman defensive end Chris Garrett to the field, CSP has registered 8.0 and 5.0 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks along with four fumbles forced. It's been part of a trend of CSP being more dominant against opposing passing attacks, limiting opponents to 175 yards or less in five of the seven games this year including each of the last four as CSP opponents are averaging 145.0 passing yards per game on 59.2% (45-76). Concordia's season pass defense ranks 34th in the country and third in the league (178.7). On the year, the defense is holding opposing offenses to 32.6% on third downs (28/86, 35th DII) including a stifling 17.4% (4-23) over the past two weeks. In just three games, the true freshman Garrett has produced 17 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks while batting down a pass at the line and he had a strip sack and recovered the fumble against Minot State. With Garrett wreaking havoc up front, junior Dion Wallisch has registered a pair of interceptions and has four pass breakups while blanketing opposing teams' top receivers.

On the year, Concordia's special teams is one of just 36 units in the country to not allow a blocked kick while using aggressive strategy situationally to block four kicks, ranking 15th in the country. Junior Jonas Schenderlein leads the kicking game by ranking seventh in the country with an 87.5% field goal rate (7-8) and is 33rd with 1.0 field goals made per game while senior punter Sam Maedke is 38th in the nation and third in the league with a 40.1 punt average. Junior returner Jake Tanner has been a steady presence on the punt return team, ranking 28th in the country and third in the NSIC at 10.9 per return while senior Elias Arlington is fourth in the league with a 22.3 average on kickoff returns.

Offensively, sophomore Marcus Gustaveson is 12th in the country and second in the NSIC with seven receiving touchdowns and is second on the team with 357 receiving yards. Arlington is fifth in the league with 110.5 all-purpose yards per game and leads the team with 385 receiving yards, ranking seventh in the conference with 64.2 receiving yards per game. Sophomore quarterback Maxon Hutton returned under center last week and is sixth in the league in most yards per completion (13.1) while he and senior Ron Johnson have combined for 11 touchdown passes (Hutton 6, Johnson 5). In the run game, sophomore Darnell Rolle ranks sixth in the league with 484 rushing yards and has a pair of 100-yard performances and a third combined rushing/receiving 100-yard effort.

SCOUTING THE COUGARS
Outside of the loss to Winona State when USF surrendered 31 points, the Cougars have allowed just 38 points in their other six games and rank second in the country in limiting opponents to 9.9 points per game, 55.1 rushing yards per game and 236.0 total yards per game. The red zone defense is third in the country (54.5% scoring rate), they've allowed the third fewest first downs (84), rank ninth in the country in sacks (3.57), 12th in tackles for loss (8.7), 15th in third down defense (29.4%), 21st in passing efficiency defense (103.26) and second in fourth down defense (17.6%).

The defense is led by the nation's leader in sacks, Dennis Gardeck with 1.43 per game while ranking 10th nationally with 1.9 tackles for loss per contest.

While the defense is among the best in the nation, the offense has been average statistically, averaging 192.4 passing yards (112th DII, 12th NSIC) and 200.0 rushing yards (37th DII, 4th NSIC) for a total offense putting up 392.4 yards (70th DII, 3rd NSIC) leading to 29.0 points per game (68th DII, 5th NSIC).

USF quarterback Ian Fieber has passed for 1,132 yards and five touchdowns but it's been the ground game led by Max Mickey where USF has done its damage. Mickey ranks 10th in the country and second in the league with 873 rushing yards and his eight rushing touchdowns rank second in the NSIC despite missing the last two weeks. He's not excpected to play this week, though. He's backed up Jason Towns, younger brother of former CSP offensive lineman Steven Davis, who has 327 yards and has also taken back two punts for touchdowns.

GAME NOTES
Get the full scoop on Concordia football in this week's GAME NOTES.