MARSHALL, Minn. - On a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon, Concordia-St. Paul (5-5 NSIC, 3-3 South) held on for a 16-10 win at Southwest Minnesota State (4-6 NSIC, 1-5 South) at the Schwan Regional Event Center as head coach
Shannon Currier becomes the program's win leader with 41 in his seven seasons.
The Golden Bears will play for a winning season next Saturday at Winona State (7-3 NSIC, 4-2 South) with a 1 p.m. kickoff. The win gives CSP back-to-back road wins after snapping a 13-game road losing streak in their last road game at UMary in week eight. It's the first back-to-back road wins since the 2014 season.
Senior kicker
Jonas Schenderlein tied the single game school record by making three field goals, the fourth time he's achieved the feat in his career and the 11th time by a CSP kicker. Two of his field goals were from 50-plus yards (53, 52), extending his career record of nine 50-plus yard field goals in his career. He finished the day 3-of-5, with his misses coming from 56 yards along with a 41-yarder that was blocked with 12 seconds to play. He has 215 career points, moving into sixth all-time and is four field goals shy of Tom Obarski's (2011-14) career record.
The three field goals by Schenderlein were the difference after the two teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter but neither could reach the end zone the rest of the way.
The Concordia defense was led by its pass rush as sophomore defensive end
Chris Garrett racked up four of Concordia's seven sacks, a new career-high that ties junior
Jackson Dobbs' team single game high for the year. Garrett now has 13 sacks on the season, fourth most in a season in school history and two shy of matching the school record by Joe LaBuda (1983) and Nathan Tiarks (1992).
The seven sacks also contributed to a dominant run defense that stifled SMSU to just 15 yards on 33 attempts and made the Mustangs one-dimensional despite a big day from SMSU quarterback Blake Gimbel, who completed 32-of-46 for 353 yards and a touchdown. He went over 10,000 career passing yards (10,107) on the day, as well.
The Golden Bear defense also came up with big stops frequently, holding the Mustangs to 0-of-4 on fourth downs and 6-of-17 on third.
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Concordia started strong, reaching the end zone first as junior
Maxon Hutton found sophomore
Keyon Walters underneath, with Walters dashing for a 20-yard touchdown. Hutton finished the day at halftime, leaving due to injury although he returned as holder in the second half. He completed 4-of-9 for 49 yards and the TD strike and added 7-for-34 rushing with a long of 33.
In the second half, senior
Dom McKinzy completed 6-of-14 for 116 yards as CSP finished the day with 165 passing yards.
Most of those went to junior
MJ Williams who had five catches for 105 yards with a long of 44. McKinzy and Williams connected on the sideline to convert a big 3rd-and-11 from the CSP 33 yard line with just over three minutes to play.
The third down connection was just the third on the day as CSP went 3-of-14 on third downs, but extended the possession that allowed Concordia to go 42 yards in nine plays, consuming 4:08 of clock despite SMSU blocking the field goal with 12 seconds to play.
Sophomore
Lajuan Preston had a big fourth quarter, rushing for 53 yards on six attempts after being held to -3 on the ground through three quarters. He finished the game with 10 carries for 50 yards and added a pair of receptions for 11 yards.
While Garrett produced four sacks, he was joined in the SMSU backfield by the other three starting defensive linemen as Dobbs,
Kelly Pierce and
Dylan Wood each had a sack as well. Sophomore
Andy Aune had a game-high 11 tackles and sophomore
Dalton Smerchek added eight.
While CSP's cornerbacks didn't produce any pass deflections, they were responsible for limiting SMSU top target Daniel Davis to just 35 receiving yards on six catches.
Redshirt freshman safety
Dez Bassett had a pair of pass breakups and seven tackles and also was big in the return game with three kickoff returns for 108 yards and a long of 55.
