ST. PAUL, Minn. - It took two lightning delays lasting nearly two hours, but Concordia-St. Paul (2-2 NSIC, 2-2 South) was able to weather the storm and produce a convincing 29-7 win over Wayne State (1-3 NSIC, 1-3 South) for the NSIC Thursday Night Football Game of the Week at Sea Foam Stadium.
Concordia evens its record at 2-2 and has the first three game winning streak at Sea Foam Stadium since the facility opened in 2009. Head coach
Shannon Currier, whose Golden Bears started the Griff Myth in the early 2000's with a 19-game winning streak at Griffin Stadium, are off to a 2-0 start to their home slate in 2018 for the first time in their on-campus stadium.
The grueling road trips continue for Concordia, facing its third nationally-ranked foe on the road next Saturday for a 1 p.m. kickoff at #11 Minnesota Duluth at Malosky Stadium. CSP has already tangled with #20 Sioux Falls and #2 Minnesota State in its first two road trips.
The game, with a scheduled 6:05 p.m. start time, was delayed 25 minutes and after a first quarter touchdown run from 13 yards out by sophomore running back
Shaq Johnson, a powerful thunderstorm burst through the heart of the Twin Cities. The cell, which produced tornadoes in the south metro, caused a one hour, 29 minute delay.
Johnson's first quarter touchdown run under four minutes into the contest (11:07/1st) was set up by the second blocked punt of the season by redshirt freshman
Grant Ericksen. Johnson finished with 12 carries for 94 yards and the score in the game as Concordia compiled 200 rushing yards on 43 attempts for its second straight 200-yard rushing performance at home.
Coming out of the long delay, the Concordia defense secured a 3-and-out highlighted by a second down sack by junior defensive end
Jackson Dobbs for a loss of 12 yards. Two plays later, the Wildcats snapped the punt out of the back of the end zone for CSP's first team safety since a 2012 meeting with UMary.
Taking a 9-0 lead into the second quarter, Concordia showed no signs of a second quarter repeat from its 46-13 loss at #2 Minnesota State on Saturday when it was outscored 32-0 by the Mavericks on the road.
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Just seconds into the quarter, senior
Jonas Schenderlein delivered a 30-yard field goal before senior quarterback
Dom McKinzy connected with each of his top two wide receivers, juniors
Marcus Gustaveson and
MJ Williams, for touchdowns of 31 and 40 yards out. Once again, Gustaveson averaged over 20-yards per catch (4-85) while Williams finished 6-79.
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McKinzy was able to excel despite the tough quarterback conditions. He had a 28 yard first quarter run that set up Johnson's 13 yard touchdown on a 2-play scoring drive after the blocked punt and he finished the game with 43 rushing yards on 10 attempts and completed 15-of-31 for 198 yards and two touchdowns while quarterbacking CSP to a turnover-free performance on offense.
For the third time in four games, Concordia won the turnover margin with a 2-0 mark against the Wildcats and now holds a +5 in the take/give (9-4) and a 28-0 scoring margin off turnovers.
For the fourth straight game to start his career, redshirt freshman cornerback
Marcus Haskins secured an interception. But perhaps more importantly, was able to hold one of the Northern Sun's top wide receivers Nate Rogers to just five catches for 40 yards on the night. Among a group of six Golden Bears with four tackles each, Haskins also had a pair of pass breakups and forced the fumble that was recovered by redshirt freshman defensive lineman
Shawn Aarhus as he factored into both turnovers. Haskins now as 14 passes defended on the season (4 INT, 10 PBU).
Joining Haskins with four tackles were its three starting linebackers,
Blake Evans (3-1),
Jake Portz (2-2) and
Andy Aune (3-1) with Evans and Portz each producing a tackle for loss. Sophomore reserve linebacker and longsnapper
Dalton Smerchek also had four tackles (1-3) including a solo stop on a punt. Redshirt freshman safety
Parker Powers' four tackles were all solo stops.
Concordia's defensive front also did its part in disrupting the WSC passing game, which was among the league's best entering play with over 260 team passing yards per game led by the quarterback play of Aaron Bleil with over 290 passing yards per game. CSP pressured the two WSC quarterbacks in the game with three sacks, six quarterback hurries while the team secured eight pass breakups. Bleil completed just 11-of-28 for 103 yards and as a team WSC registered only 160 passing yards (14-of-39).
Joining Dobbs with a sack each were junior
Kelly Pierce and sophomore
Chris Garrett. Pierce and Dobbs each had a pair of hurries and Pierce had a team-high 1.5 TFL.
Wayne State ended up with 131 rushing yards on 36 carries as the Golden Bears held the Wildcats to 3.6 yards per carry. Marlon Warren led Wayne State with 13 rushes for 53 yards while D'andre Vanexel had seven carries for 45 yards and a touchdown.
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