WINONA, Minn. - The 2018 football season came full circle on a cold, November Saturday afternoon as Concordia-St. Paul (5-6 NSIC, 3-4 South) dropped a heartbreaker on the road to a quality opponent, 24-20 at Winona State (8-3 NSIC, 5-2 South) at Altra Federal Credit Union Stadium.

In the season opener, Concordia took a 24-20 lead with 32 seconds to play, eventually giving up the game winning touchdown to #20 Sioux Falls with three seconds left. Today, the Golden Bears held a 20-17 lead with the ball in Winona State territory but couldn't convert a 4th-and-2, turning the ball over downs following a sack at the WSU 47 yard line.

The Warriors would score the go-ahead touchdown on 3rd-and-goal from the eight yard line with 36 seconds left and force three incomplete passes before their fifth interception to seal the game in the final seconds.

Like their season opener against the #20 Sioux Falls Cougars, the Golden Bears ended the year on the road against a team that was ranked #21 to start the year, with WSU climbing as high as #15 in the AFCA Division II Top-25 early in the year. WSU finished 8-3 overall and 5-2 in the South Division while USF finished the year 7-4 overall, 5-2 South. The two narrow losses to national-caliber opposition, combined with the homecoming loss to Northern State put the squad within a handful of plays from an 8-win season and 6-win turnaround.

The loss prevented the Golden Bears from its first winning season since 2011 and ending the season 4-1 in the last five games including a three game road winning streak.

Concordia trailed early in the game, falling behind 14-0 early in the second quarter.

Late in the half, Winona State looked poised to go ahead by three scores when redshirt freshman cornerback Marcus Haskins intercepted Warrior quarterback Owen Burke at the 10 yard line with 2:43 to play.

The Golden Bears responded with a 10-play, 82-yard drive with junior quarterback Maxon Hutton finding sophomore wide receiver Jake Shepley for an 11-yard touchdown pass with 32 seconds left in the half.

Haskins added another interception at the CSP 28 yard line on the ensuing drive, stopping a pair of late first half Warrior scoring drives. Haskins finishes the year with nine interceptions, adding one more pass breakup to finish with 20 and padding his NCAA Division II lead to finish with 29 passes defended. It was his second game with two interceptions.

After his second INT in as many drives, the Golden Bears turned it back over to WSU at the Warrior 43 yard line with 17 seconds to play, giving Winona State one more chance to add to their 14-7 lead.

But on 3rd-and-10, sophomore defensive end Chris Garrett sacked Burke to end the half. The sack broke the single-season school record of 15.0 sacks held by Joe LaBuda (1983) and Nathan Tiarks (1992). He finished the game with 3.5 sacks, giving him 16.5 on the year in 10 games, increasing his DII lead of 1.44 sacks per game to 1.65. In just two seasons, Garrett has 22.5 sacks in 17 games. He also had a strip sack and recovery to stop WSU at the CSP 20 yard line on their opening drive.

Garrett, the reigning D2Football.com National Defensive Player of the Week, added 4.5 tackles for loss and nine tackles, with a pair of quarterback hurries and a pass deflection. In the final six games of 2018, Garrett produced 14.0 sacks.

Trailing by just a score at the break despite four first half interceptions, the Golden Bears started with the ball in the second half and wasted no time moving downfield. Sophomore running back Lajuan Preston ripped off back-to-back runs of 24 and 21 yards and the Golden Bears converted the big plays to points with a 35-yard field goal by senior Jonas Schenderlein to cut the Warrior lead to four, 14-10.

On the Warriors' ensuing drive, junior defensive lineman Kelly Pierce came up with a big sack on 3rd-and-4 to push the Warriors back to the CSP 27 yard line with Warrior kicker Paul Ortiz missing from 44 yards out.

With momentum on their side, the Golden Bears marched downfield, with Hutton converting a pair of third downs, a 3rd-and-7 pass to senior tight end John Damrow for an 11 yard gain and a 3rd-and-5 run for 11 yards to the WSU 31 yard line.

Hutton completed the drive by finding junior MJ Williams for a 22-yard touchdown to give CSP its first lead, 17-14 with 1:24 to play in the third quarter. It was a strong 12-play, 73-yard drive taking 5:07 off the clock.

The defense responded after WSU started its next drive at the CSP 25 yard line following a big return and a penalty, holding the Warriors on a 3-and-out with Ortiz hitting the field goal from 34 yards out to tie the game at 17 with 21 seconds left to play in the quarter.

Concordia's offense kept rolling, producing points on a third straight drive to start the second half with Schenderlein connecting for a season-long 56 yard field goal to reclaim a 20-17 lead with 12:19 to play in the game.

The 56-yard field goal by Schenderlein was his 42nd career field goal, leaving him just two shy of the career record held by Tom Obarski (2011-14). He scored eight points in the game, finishing his career with 223 points, sixth most in school history. The 56-yard field goal ties Obarski for the third longest field goal in team history and gives him 10 career field goals of 50-plus yards.

The Concordia defense held the Warriors on their next two possessions with CSP taking over on its own 27 yard line with 5:52 to play, leading by three.

Preston picked up a 14-yard run to convert a 3rd-and-8 and Hutton followed with a 12 yard run on the next play to push the ball into Warrior territory to the 45 yard line. After a fumble, Hutton gashed the Warriors for 14 yards to the WSU 37 yard line. But the Warrior defense held on 3rd-and-2 and picked up a sack on 4th-and-2.

WSU would move 53 yards in seven plays to claim the go-ahead touchdown with 32 seconds left.

Preston had a huge second half on the ground, rushing 13 times for 90 yards after picking up seven yards on two carries in the first half. Preston finishes the year with 704 yards at a 6.5 average per carry, most of the coming after assuming lead back duty in week five following in the injury to sophomore Shaq Johnson.

Hutton led the team on the ground in the game with 23 carries for 114 yards, including his lost yardage on three sacks. He accounted for 267 yards of total offense in the outing, completing 16-32 for 153 yards and two touchdowns through the air, although the Warriors were able to intercept him five times.

Hutton and Preston led a ground attack that rolled up 216 yards on 45 attempts, the sixth 200-yard rushing game of the season for the squad while the run defense held WSU to 60 yards on 28 carries for a 2.1 average.

Hutton found seven different targets on the day, connecting with Damrow for a career-high five catches for 42 yards. Williams had another strong day with four catches for 61 yards and his fifth TD. Williams finished the year leading the team with 43 catches for 656 yards while Damrow finished third on the team with 191 receiving yards on 14 catches after recording just two catches for 14 yards in the first five weeks of the year.

Burke completed 16-27 for 237 yards and two touchdowns for WSU, was intercepted twice and sacked four times before leaving due to injury in the third quarter. John Rumpza replaced him, completed 5-9 for 44 yards and the game-winning TD pass. Connor Schultz had 8-92 and Isaac Frandsen had 7-97 as both receivers had touchdowns for WSU.

Jake Portz led the Concordia defense with nine tackles including eight solo stops and finished the year as the team's top tackler with 78.

The Golden Bears out-gained the Warriors 369-to-342 on the day, had a 22-20 edge in first downs and converted 6-of-15 on third down while holding WSU to 4-of-13. But like last week when CSP held SMSU to 0-for-4 on fourth down in a narrow 16-10 win, the Golden Bears would go 0-for-4 on fourth down today in a narrow 20-17 loss.

Concordia also had the time of possession win, 31:35 to 28:25 and held the Warriors to two touchdowns in five trips to the red zone.

Despite losing the turnover margin 5-to-3 on the day, CSP would edge WSU 7-0 in points off turnovers.