BISMARCK, N.D. - Just a week after having its own homecoming spoiled, Concordia-St. Paul (3-4 NSIC, 2-2 South) was able to return the favor to an opponent, topping the University of Mary (0-7 NSIC, 0-4 North) 17-7 on a cold, windy afternoon at the MDU Resources Community Bowl.

The win erases a 13-game road losing streak for the Golden Bears, who won at UMary for the first time since 2008, but improved their road record against the Marauders to 3-1 all-time. The loss for UMary sends the Marauders to a 16-game losing streak against the NSIC South Division and pushes the overall losing streak to 11 games. CSP reaches three wins for the first time since a 2014 season that saw the team finish 5-6 overall and 4-3 in the NSIC South.

Concordia returns to Sea Foam Stadium next Saturday in the final week of NSIC North-South Division crossover play with a noon kickoff against Minnesota Crookston (1-6 NSIC, 1-3 North).

Concordia's defense was dominant, as the Marauders never had more than 30 yards on a single drive and had three-and-outs on seven of UMary's 13 possessions four out of six in the second half. Concordia's third down defense held UMary on 1-of-9 in the final three quarters. Overall, Concordia held UMary to seven first downs and 150 yards of total offense on 52 plays.

Redshirt freshman safety Dez Bassett put Concordia ahead 7-0 with a 77-yard interception return for touchdown in the third quarter and sophomore defensive end Chris Garrett matched his career-high with three sacks to give him eight on the season in six games.

CSP rushed a school record 63 times for 206 yards and held the host Marauders to under two yards per carry with 61 rushing yards on 32 attempts. Concordia converted 6-of-13 on third down from the second quarter on, had 24 first downs and held a 38:18 to 21:42 edge in time of possession.

The winds were whipping and the temperature was falling in central North Dakota as the forecast high of 40 degrees was expected to occur during the morning hours while slowly dropping through the 30's throughout the afternoon. The accompanying steady 22 mile per hour wind out of the northwest was compounded by continued gusts in the 30-to-40 mile per hour range which made the passing and kicking games challenging for each squad.

Senior quarterback Dom McKinzy put the game away with 2:11 to play, taking a 4th-and-2 run 26 yards for a touchdown to extend the 10-7 lead to a two score game, 17-7. McKinzy navigated the game's conditions by using his feet with 20 rushes for 70 yards and the touchdown while completing 12-of-22 for 129 yards.

The Golden Bears, who won the coin toss and elected to start and finish the game with the wind at their backs, actually played their best football in the second and third quarters when heading directly into the wind.

In the first quarter, Concordia had the ball for just 4:21 compared to UMary's 10:39 and was out-gained 102-20 including 5-2 in first downs. The defense was able to hold the Marauders scoreless, as UMary wasn't able to advance past the CSP 42 yard line despite the yardage advantage.

While Concordia was able to completely reverse course in the second quarter with a 10:50-to-4:10 time of possession margin and a 87-6 edge in total offense, the teams once again played a scoreless quarter of football. In the second quarter, CSP threatened by getting to the UMary 20 yard line before a backwards pass from Dom McKinzy to Lajuan Preston in the backfield was recovered by the Marauders.

After the CSP defense responded with a big three-and-out capped by the first of three sacks by sophomore defensive end Chris Garrett, Concordia once again marched deep into Marauder territory. This time, McKinzy was intercepted on a screen pass at the UMary 31 yard line with 1:13 to play before the break.

The Marauders put together their biggest threat of the half after the interception, advancing to the CSP 36 yard line when Garrett picked up his second sack to end another drive, knocking UMary out of field goal range to preserve the scoreless tie.

In the third quarter, the Marauders found success in the air with a 28-yard pass on the second play of the drive to move the ball to the CSP 27 yard line, the deepest they had advanced on the Golden Bears on the day. But on the next play, Bassett jumped in front of the Jason Hoekstra pass and sprinted down the sideline for the touchdown, a fitting way for the game's first points to be scored on defense.

After the Golden Bear defense piled on another three-and-out, once again capped by a sack (Jackson Dobbs & Kelly Pierce), the Marauders pinned CSP at their own 1-yard line with a 70 yard blast.

Concordia responded with its best drive of the game, showing a new look with a power formation, bruising the Marauders for 26 yards on six rushes, combined with a penalty to get to the 32 yard line with breathing room. Then, McKinzy went down field for 23 yards to senior tight end John Damrow into UMary territory followed by a 20-yard connection to senior running back Emanuel Jones to the Marauder 25 yard line.

The Marauders would hold in the red zone, but senior Jonas Schenderlein converted the 24-yard field goal to put Concordia ahead 10-0 after the 14-play, 92-yard drive drained nearly seven minutes off the clock (6:44).

During the quarter in which CSP was able to tack 10 points on the scoreboard, the Golden Bears had a 10:22 to 4:33 time of possession advantage and a 111-to-38 margin in total offense along with a defensive touchdown.

The momentum continued to start the fourth quarter as Garrett Gardner powered his way to 25 yards on five carries to help the Golden Bears move to the Marauder 31 yard line. But on 4th-and-4, McKinzy was strip-sacked with UMary linebacker Ryan Naki recovering and returning it 52 yards to the CSP 3-yard line.

UMary's third forced turnover of the game set-up their lone touchdown, a three yard run on the next play to cut the margin to 10-7 with 10:43 to play.

But with the win at its back, Concordia was able to continue its domination of the clock offensively while the defense did its job with peak efficiency down the stretch. The Marauders would get the ball just twice the rest of the game, running seven plays for one yard. They went 0-for-3 passing and Garrett picked up his third sack on 3rd-and-10 from the Marauder 25 yard line before Bassett broke up the fourth down pass with 1:33 to play.

And it was McKinzy's big fourth down keeper for the 26-yard score that provided the defense the cushion it needed on the previous drive, taking 4:16 off the clock as Concordia marched 85 yards on 10 plays while taking 4:16 off the clock at a critical point in the contest.

In the fourth quarter, Concordia dominated the clock more than any other quarter with 12:39 to 2:21 in time of possession and a 114-to-4 margin in total offense as the Marauders ran just eight plays in the quarter.

While McKinzy ended up leading the Golden Bear ground game with 70 net rushing yards, Preston had another strong game in the backfield with 57 yards on 15 attempts and once again was not tackled for a loss for the third straight contest. Gardner added 9-38, Jones 11-35 and Jeremiah Johnson 5-19 as five players had at least five rushing attempts on the day.

By contrast, UMary's ground game was led by Bryan Lumsden with 13 carries for 52 yards and Colton Farmer contributed 7-17 with a touchdown.

Junior wide receiver Marcus Gustaveson led the receivers with six catches for 70 yards including a 28-yard connection from McKinzy.

The Marauders managed just 89 passing yards led by Hoekstra who completed 6-of-19 for 86 yards and was sacked four times. Luke Little was the top target at three catches for 33 yards and Garrett Weissinger had 2-for-37 with the long of 28 coming on the play before the Bassett pick-six.

Redshirt freshman linebacker Jake Portz, the team leader in tackles on the season, once again led the defense with eight stops while Dobbs added seven tackles including his half sack. Half of Garrett's six tackles in the game were sacks while Bassett and Pierce each had six tackles, as well. Redshirt freshman cornerback Marcus Haskins added another pass breakup, giving him 14 on the season among his 19 total passes defended. CSP had six pass breakups in the game.

The Marauder defense was led by Jarad Zittleman's game-high 18 tackles as the CSP ground game kept UMary's defense occupied throughout.