ST. PAUL, Minn. - As the 2019 season hits its later weeks, Concordia-St. Paul (4-3 NSIC) will host Bemidji State (5-2 NSIC) in the final week of NSIC North-South cross divisional play on Saturday at noon at Sea Foam Stadium.

A win for Concordia would propel to last year's win total (5) and even the squad's record against the NSIC North at 2-2. The program will also host CSP Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day, as the players each select one staff or faculty member to thank for their service to the university and the football program. It is expected to be a fantastic day for fall football, with a high of 57, sunshine and wins out of the south at 10-20mph.

FOLLOW ONLINE
All Concordia football games, home and away, will be streamed online as part of the NSIC's league-wide agreement with Presto Sports (formerly Stretch Internet). All CSP football games can be viewed in Concordia's online video portal.
 
Home games will be produced by UltimateX Displays, complete with a 15-foot by 8-foot MAX XL LED screen in the stadium that will replicate the webcast production in the stadium including numerous replays.
 
The broadcast is complete with the play-by-play call from Dan Flanagan, the voice of the Golden Bears since 2008. The St. Paul native is a graduate of Fordham University in New York, where he studied broadcasting including working as the voice of multiple Rams sports teams including basketball and football.

Watch the games in HD on your home TV as well through NSIC app widely available on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon streaming devices and more! Simply search "NSIC" on your streaming device, games are available for all Northern Sun members including all sports that are streamed live on each campus.
 
Games can also be followed with live stats and by keeping track of the NSIC live scoreboard.
 
COACH CURRIER SHOW ON CSP BEARS PODCAST
[ listen online ] The Coaches Show with Shannon Currier hosted by Wally Langfellow of Minnesota Score returns for a second season in 2019. The show airs in the MSP radio market on 1440 AM KYCR following the Minnesota high school football game of the week, typically on Friday night in the 9 p.m. hour of each week. The show is also distributed via the CSP Bears Podcast and is available on most podcast subscription services such as Apple iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Stitcher, Tune-In and more.
 
This week's guests include sophomore linebacker Gabe Nkumu and redshirt freshman center Matthew Montgomery.
 
Subscribe to the CSP Bears Podcast, which will also return for a second year this fall. This year, the podcast will be co-hosted by CSP baseball alumni Andrew Shotwell and Alex LaPorte and will continue to tell the story of CSP athletics in an interesting and engaging way to help people get behind the scenes of various people associated with Concordia – including Comets and Golden Bears!

The first podcast guest of the year was first year athletics director Regan McAthie, with the second airing expected late this week with head esports coach Logan Hermes.

CSP MAKES FROGTOWN RADIO DEBUT IN ST PAUL
[ listen online ] Concordia continues to make a positive impression in the St. Paul community with local radio station WFNU (94.1 FM) starting a regular segment to air on Saturday mornings at 9:30 a.m. The first air time is set for September 21, but the station has started recording interviews for a podcast titled "Concordia-St. Paul Scoreboard" which is available on Spotify and Anchor. Follow WFNU Frogtown Radio's CSP connections at @ScoreboardCSP and @651SportsUpdate. 
 
DOWNLOAD THE CSP BEARS FAN APP
Also back for a second year is the CSP Bears fan app, provided by From Now On. The app features a customizable experience, users can select their favorite sports teams and select their affiliation (fan, student, alumni, etc) to receive tailored notifications. The app provides easy to follow live stats along with links to watch games live on their device. Keep up with the latest with the new 'news' feature which combines stories from cspbears.com with the social streams from CSP athletics.

2019 TEAM CAPTAINS
CSP head coach Shannon Currier will have rotating team captains each week for the second year in a row in 2019. Captains are selected by the coaching staff based on performance on the field and as a leader in practice, meetings and day-to-day activities.

This week's game captains: senior quarterback Maxon Hutton (8x) and senior quarterback/wide receiver Jared Olsgaard on offense and junior Chris Garrett (6x) and sophomore Dez Bassett on defense.

SERIES HISTORY: BEMIDJI STATE 9, CONCORDIA 7
After falling 54-7 in the first meeting between the programs in CSP's first year of Division II football in 1999, head coach Shannon Currier led the Golden Bears to four straight wins over the Beavers from 2000-03 and CSP held a 5-2 series advantage  through 2005.

The series flipped in BSU's favor after that as the Beavers have won seven of the past nine.

At home, Concordia is 5-2 in the all-time series between Griffin and Sea Foam Stadiums but just 1-2 at Sea Foam Stadium as the Beavers make their fourth trip to CSP's new digs since 2009.

Head coach Shannon Currier holds a 4-1 career record against BSU, going 4-0 between 2000 and 2003 before losing 54-17 in the last meeting between the teams in 2017 in Bemidji.

LAST MEETING, 2017: BEMIDJI STATE 54, CONCORDIA 17
Concordia was unable to overcome a 5-2 turnover margin as BSU forced three turnovers with CSP in the red zone, and Bemidji State added four plays of 56-plus yards to put CSP away.

Bemidji State built a 40-0 lead by halftime including long touchdowns of 76 (pass) and 68 (rush) yards and a 72-yard interception return for touchdown just before halftime.

Michael Washington led BSU with five carries for 138 yards and touchdown runs of 68 and 56 yards. BSU QB Jordan Hein completed 16-of-30 for 242 yards and four TDs, adding 5-30 rushing.

Concordia snapped the shutout in the third quarter when Maxon Hutton connected with Gabe Steed for a 19 yard TD. The score was a two play scoring drive following a muffed BSU punt recovered by the Golden Bears.

Elias Arlington added a 91-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the third quarter, and Jonas Schenderlein drilled a 50-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. Arlington led the team with 154 all-purpose yards including 112 on kickoff returns and 42 more yards on three receptions.

Hutton completed 12-of-35 for 164 yards and Trevor Tillett added 7-of-15 passing for 62 yards. They connected with eight different receivers in the game.

Jake Tanner led the receiving corps with six catches for 44 yards while DeCeon Schumann had a team-high 55 receiving yards on two catches.

Darnell Rolle led the ground game with 11 carries for 37 yards while three others had between 15 and 20 yards.

On the defensive side, Brian Szutkowski and Mitch Zillman each had seven tackles to lead the team.

LAST WEEK: MINOT STATE 38, CONCORDIA 31
Just a week after an estimated two feet of snow fell in parts of north and western North Dakota, Minot State hosted Concordia on a sunny, warm and windy fall afternoon. The wind didn't impact the offenses, as the teams combined for 961 yards of total offense and 69 points - the highest scoring game of CSP's season.

In the final tally, Minot State's 505 yards of total offense and 308 rushing yards carried the day, despite CSP quarterback Maxon Hutton producing career-highs in pass completions (22), attempts (39) and yards (257) while adding 45 more on the ground and two passing touchdowns.

Minot State QB Ben Bolinske couldn't be contained on the other side, rushing 10 times for 136 yards and three TDs while completing 14-of-18 for 197 yards and another TD.

For Concordia, senior Jabril Clewis was on the receiving end of both TDs from Hutton, his first two as a Golden Bear. He finished with six catches for 78 yards. Senior MJ Williams added team-highs of seven catches for 91 yards, as well.

On the ground, freshman Darios Crawley-Reid continues to shine in his first year, rushing eight times for 73 yards including a 24-yard TD run, his fifth overall touchdown of the season. Sophomore Shaq Johnson added 17-70 rushing and backup QB/starting WR Jared Olsgaard had an 11 yard TD run while adding 2-33 receiving.

Defensively, CSP's linebackers had a busy day led by sophomore Gabe Nkumu who produced the second-most tackles in team history with 19 while sophomore Jake Portz added 10. Junior linebacker Dalton Smerchek was third on the team with seven tackles giving the starting trio 36 combined total tackles.

NOTES ABOUT THE BEAVERS
The Beavers enter the weekend as one of the top teams in the NSIC North as their 5-2 record matches UMD for the top spot in the division. It's been a bit of a wild ride for BSU as they opened the year with three commanding victories before falling at home to UMD in week four. BSU followed it up with a pair of dramatic comeback wins before Winona State handed them their second loss of the season last week.

Bemidji State has had three different players make starts at QB this season as Emmett Enright has been the man at the helm over the past six games. Enright has thrown for 847 yards and four TDs while completing 51.4% of his passes. The changes at QB haven't slowed down junior WR Malik Williams totaled double-digit catches for the second straight game, including 10 receptions in the first half last week. From 2015-19, BSU had a stretch of 49 games without a double-digit receiver before Williams' back-to-back games with 11 catches. He is currently on pace to break the BSU single-season record for average receptions per game at 7.6, which leads the NSIC. Williams' 37 receptions rank third in the conference.

Sophomore RB Jalen Frye ranks second in the NSIC with 110.3 rushing yards per game. He has 1,282 career rushing yards in 16 career games, 426 rushing yards shy of 10th most in BSU history. Frye ranks 20th in NCAA Division II with 662 rushing yards this season.

Senior DL Alex Hoffman led the "Gang Green" defense with 12 tackles last week, which was a career high. He also added career highs with 4.0 TFL, 2.0 sacks and one FF. Hoffman ranks 12th in the league with 7.5 TFL this season. Sophomore DB Gunnar Feldhege leads the defense and ranks 16th in the NSIC with 47 total tackles.

BSU continues to lead the nation in red zone defense at 56 percent despite giving up four red zone scores to WSU. The Beavers also rank within the top 10 nationally in 3rd down conversion defense (4th; 25%) and passes intercepted (6th; 12). Bemidji State has been efficient protecting the QB with only five sacks allowed to lead the NSIC and rank 13th nationally. On the flip side, the BSU DL has attacked opposing signal-callers with 21 team sacks to rank 19th nationally.