MANKATO, Minn. - A 32-point second quarter sparked by consecutive safeties allowed host #2 Minnesota State (3-0 NSIC, 3-0 South) to defeat Concordia-St. Paul (1-2 NSIC, 1-2 South) 46-13 on Saturday afternoon in the Harvest Bowl at Blakeslee Stadium.

The Golden Bears, whose two losses have both been on the road against nationally-ranked opponents, will host Wayne State on Thursday, September 20 with a 6 p.m. kickoff for the NSIC Thursday Night Football Game of the Week on Midco Sports Net. The Bears are 1-0 at home this year, topping Upper Iowa 34-7 last Saturday and are also 1-0 in NSIC Thursday Night Football Game of the Week, beating Minot State last year 24-0 in the 2017 season opener.

Entering Saturday's game at MSU, Concordia had the 24th ranked third down defense in the country (3rd, NSIC), holding opponents to 24.8 percent. But in the first half at Minnesota State, the Mavericks converted 5-of-7 on third down and made both fourth down conversions to keep its offense on the field, turning all of its first half drives into touchdowns.
 
Additionally, the Mavericks picked up a pair of second quarter safeties to not only put four additional points on the board, but also maintaining possession for long stretches of play to drain any momentum Concordia's offense had built in the first quarter.
 
In that opening quarter, each team had six first downs and MSU only had a five yard edge in total offense (139 to 134). But CSP had its opening drive stall on the MSU 33 yard line, facing a stiff wind which forced the team to punt. Sophomore Jake Shepley pinned MSU on its own two yard line but the Mavericks converted a 3rd-and-short and two plays later Justin Taormina broke loose for an 83-yard touchdown run to start the scoring.
 
Concordia's opening drive featured passes of 35 and 19 yards from senior Dom McKinzy to juniors Marcus Gustaveson and MJ Williams, respectively.
 
McKinzy finished the game 5-of-13 for 93 yards and a 16-yard touchdown pass to Williams with one second left in the first quarter. Facing the big margin in the third quarter, McKinzy did not finish the contest. Williams had four catches for 58 yards and Gustaveson 3-for-58.
 
Sophomore Maxon Hutton completed 3-of-7 for 39 yards in relief of McKinzy and engineered the team's final scoring drive that started late in the third and early in the fourth quarter.
 
CSP's first quarter touchdown drive was sparked by a fake punt when the offense was facing a 3-and-out with redshirt freshman Marcus Haskins dashing 10 yards around the left end. Haskins would also pick up his third interception of the year in the end zone in the third quarter, and had a pass breakup to give him 11 passes defended through three weeks.

Two plays after the Haskins fake punt, sophomore running back Shaq Johnson broke free for a 22 yard run to the MSU 16 yard line, setting up the McKinzy-to-Williams 16 yard touchdown on the next play.
 
Johnson had a strong game, rushing 14 times for 87 yards including a fourth quarter two yard rushing touchdown. It was his first rushing touchdown of the year, but the first year starter has four total touchdowns through three weeks and has accounted for seven touchdowns over CSP's last four games including the two rushing, one passing score effort in the 2017 finale win over SMSU.
 
But the story of the game was Minnesota State's run of good fortune in the second quarter. Starting with a 27-yard touchdown pass from JD Ekowa to Jalen Sample on 3rd-and-18, followed by a 53-yard touchdown pass from Ekowa to Shane Zylstra deep down the middle.
 
That led into the first of two safeties, with MSU executing touchdowns following each of the big defensive scoring plays.

The Mavericks also started the second half with the ball and although Haskins intercepted Ekowa on a 2nd-and-goal from the six yard line in the end zone, the Mavericks had drained over half of the quarter (7:38) off the clock on a 15-play, 69-yard drive that came up empty.
 
In the decisive second quarter, the even field of the game that featured six first downs each and a five yard margin in total offense, flipped in the home team's direction. MSU had a 12-to-0 edge in first downs, held CSP to -14 yards of total offense on six rushing attempts and 0-for-1 passing while racking up 270 yards of total offense to run away with the contest.
 
Concordia had the ball for just 3:04 of play during the quarter. From the 7:35 mark of the second to the 7:22 mark of the third quarter, Concordia had the ball for just one minute and 13 seconds and had just four plays from scrimmage, two resulting in the safeties.
 
Removing the second quarter from the equation, MSU held just a 14-13 scoring advantage and a 270-to-230 edge in total offense. But in total, MSU finished the day with 541 yards to CSP's 216, held a 27-to-11 first down margin and 37:44 to 22:16 time of possession advantage.
 
Concordia was able to win the turnover margin for the second time this year and is now ahead 7-4 on the season in the take-give as defensive linemen Cole Marmor forced a fumble with Hunter Quinn recovering in the second half following the Haskins interception. Concordia didn't commit a turnover in the game, either.
 
Redshirt freshman linebacker Jake Portz had a team-high 12 tackles and sophomore linebacker Andy Aune added nine.
 
The Maverick defense registered five sacks in the game as returning standout defensive lineman Zach Dodge helped open up the pressure for the MSU front.
 
Taormina led MSU with 158 rushing yards on 13 carries, adding the long first quarter touchdown run. CSP held one of the league's top running backs Nate Gunn to just 54 yards on 14 carries (3.9 avg) and a touchdown, although he wasn't featured in the second half.

Ekowa completed 7-of-11 for 133 yards and two scores through the air and added 9-54 on the ground to lead the two-headed MSU quarterback tandem. Ryan Schlichte completed 6-of-11 for 64 yards and rushed three times for 23 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
 
Zylstra led MSU's receivers with three catches for 94 yards and the long second quarter touchdown.
 
On Concordia's special teams, senior kicker Jonas Schenderlein had his streak of 66 consecutive PATs come to a close as his first quarter attempt was blocked. He also had a pair of touchbacks on five kickoffs with two of those kickoffs coming from his own 20 yard line after the safeties.
 
Shepley averaged 38.2 yards on his five punts with a pair inside the 20 and a long of 49.