ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Saturday at 1 p.m., Concordia-St. Paul (1-9 NSIC, 0-6 South) will host Southwest Minnesota State (2-8 NSIC, 0-6 South) for senior day at Sea Foam Stadium.

The Bears look to snap a 9-game losing streak while the Mustangs enter play having lost six in a row. Each team's last victory was against the same opponent, Minot State. Saturday afternoon is expected to have temperatures in the upper 30s with mostly sunny conditions and a slight wind out of the south (5-10 mph).

Concordia sends off 19 seniors on Saturday, including three student-athletes with junior eligibility (Matt Liewen, Ben Lawrence and Brock Baumgarn) along with student-assistant coach Blair Griffith. One of the team's 17 listed seniors, Samuel Kessler, intends to return to the program in 2018 following a season ending injury during fall camp. In addition to the above mentioned, Concordia will honor the following seniors during pregame announcements: Elias Arlington, Breon Hoosier, Deceon Schumann, Frantz Polimice, Ron Johnson, Andrew Capirchio, Billy Brown, Joseph Tarwai, DeAnthony McKinley, Sam Maedke, Matt Bjork, JJ Przybylka, Willie Ross, Justin Axelson and Chazz Roberts.

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).

EVEN MATCHUP
On paper, Saturday's tilt has a lot of similarities between CSP and SMSU. Both teams are playing without their starting quarterback as sophomore Maxon Hutton went down in week nine at Wayne State and is no longer listed on the two deep while SMSU starter Blake Gimbel was injured in week four after getting out to a hot start in which he had completed 69.6 percent of his throws (64-92) with a 7-2 TD-INT rate and 734 yards. Hutton was in his first year as a starter and had just topped 1,000 yards (1,009) and was nearing his first 100-yard rushing game at Wayne State in helping CSP pull off a road comeback when he went down in the fourth quarter with a career high 86 rushing yards.

The teams have a similar points for-against line on the year with SMSU scoring 0.9 more per game (18.5 to 17.6) but allowing 1.8 more on defense (34.0 to 32.2) against identical schedules. CSP averages roughly 20 yards less on offense while allowing about two yards less per game. The teams have similar rushing splits as well, with CSP rushing for 102.5 to SMSU's 103.8 with CSP allowing 244.1 to SMSU's 234.7.

The Mustangs have a slight edge in third down success, converting 37 percent (67-179) to CSP's 32 percent (49-154) but the Golden Bears have more than made up for it with fourth down play, converting 50 percent (10-20) to SMSU's 29 percent (11-38).

While SMSU has scored five more touchdowns (24-19), the Golden Bears have made nine more field goals (15-6) and the teams have nearly identical time of possessions with CSP's 28:24 holding a three second advantage.

In the more recent past, Concordia has not allowed more than 28 points in each of the last four weeks, taking nationally-ranked Winona State and Sioux Falls deep into the third quarter in competitive games while nearly pulling off road comebacks at Wayne State and Augustana. SMSU, by contrast, has allowed 30-plus points each of the last four weeks with the closest margin being an 11 point loss at Upper Iowa (31-20).

FRESHMEN MAKING MARK ON THE DEFENSE
The Golden Bear defense has held opponents under 30 points six times in 2017 including each of the last four weeks in NSIC South Division play. Last year, the Bears allowed at least 30 points in eight of the final nine games and allowed 28 or more in nine straight to end the year. A big part of the defensive improvement has come from the youth infusion where freshmen have been inserted into the starting lineup along the way at each of the three levels. In the secondary, Lorenzo Kendricks has assumed the starting strong safety spot after providing solid depth at the cornerback position in the first half of the year. In the last three games, he's made 16 tackles including a high of seven with a forced fumble against Sioux Falls. He's had a pass breakup each of the last two weeks.

At linebacker, Dalton Smerchek drew his first start in week 10 at Augustana, producing nine tackles to bump his season total from 13 to 22 with eight of his season stops coming on punt coverage where he also serves as the team's long snapper.

The big change at linebacker has been the play of Blake Evans who has 63 tackles over the last six weeks including five games of 10-plus. He's the team's tackles leader with 84, ranking seventh in the Northern Sun.

Up front, Chris Garrett had the biggest individual defensive performance of the season for the Bears in week 10 with nine tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and three strip sacks to earn NSIC Defensive Player of the Week honors. He started off his career coming in as a reserve in CSP's 24-0 shutout win in the season opener, making a strip sack and recovering the fumble in CSP territory to preserve the shutout. He missed the next four games due to injury and has been a force since returning in week six. He's made at least a half tackle for loss every game, is tied for the NSIC lead with five forced fumbles and ranks fourth in the league with 6.0 sacks despite playing in just six contests.