DULUTH, Minn. – Concordia-St. Paul (1-6 NSIC, 0-2 North) was unable to pull off a road upset at #18 Minnesota Duluth (6-1 NSIC, 3-0 North) on a sunny, brisk Saturday afternoon on homecoming at Malosky Stadium.
 
Concordia dropped its third-straight homecoming football game including the second straight road homecoming game at a ranked opponent, facing #18 UMD today and #17 Minnesota State two weeks ago, with their own homecoming game against Bemidji State last week.
 
The Golden Bears return home next Saturday at noon, hosting Northern State (5-2 NSIC, 1-1 North) with the Wolves' sliding past Minot State tonight 36-35 in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
 
In week 7 at Malosky Stadium, the Golden Bears and Bulldogs each entered play with uncertainty on their two-deeps at the quarterback position. A week ago in St. Paul, four different players completed passes for the Golden Bears while three different Bulldogs have earned significant playing time since week 4.
 
Today, Concordia sophomore Abe Schwartz handled sole possession of the duties under center, filling in well in his first career start. He completed 12-22 for 154 yards and a pair of fourth quarter touchdown passes including a long of 67 to Mason Van Zeeland on the first play of a drive following UMD's first touchdown to cut the score to 19-7 with 10:34 to play in the game.
 
He also connected with running back Brian Lankford-Johnson on 3^rd-and-goal from the 2-yard line with 1:01 to play in the game's final score.
 
Concordia's offensive front faced one of its toughest tests of the year against a Bulldog defense that entered play leading the league with 285 yards of total offense allowed per game and a league-high 23 sacks. CSP's offensive line and game plan worked in concert, allowing just one sack and four tackles for loss while keeping CSP tied through the first quarter, within a field goal at the half and within 12 points entering the fourth quarter.
 
The Golden Bears kept UMD off the scoreboard for nearly the entire first half, with UMD finally converting a 51-yard field goal off the crossbar as time expired in the second quarter.
 
After shutting UMD down on the game's opening drive to a 3-and-out with no yards gained, the Golden Bears executed the bend, but don't break defense well, forcing UMD to miss its first two field goals of the day on the next two drives in the red zone.

Concordia had executed its first half game plan to perfection, taking 5:44 off the clock on a 5-minute, 44-second possession that resulted in a punt from their own 47-yard line, and a 12-play, 38-yard possession that spanned 7:45 of clock on its third possession that resulted in a punt from the UMD 42 yard line after advancing to the 32 yard line.
 
UMD also drained the clock, taking 8:10 off the clock on its second drive that saw the Bulldogs march 66 yards on 16 plays before a missed field goal into the wind at the CSP 14 yard line, and a 4:27 drive taking nine plays and 61 yards for a missed field goal from the CSP 19.
 
UMD's final drive of the half is what broke the scoreless tie, with UMD moving 52 yards in 11 plays to reach the CSP 34-yard line to set up the 51 yard field goal with the wind at their backs, needing just 1-minute and 16-seconds to do so.
 
It was the first of four made field goals for Bulldog kicker Curt Cox, who made his fourth field goal as the third quarter expired to cap a third quarter that featured three made field goals from 33, 31 and 28 yards to give UMD a 12-0 lead.

While Concordia was able to drain clock in the first half, the third quarter saw an aggressive Bulldog defense adapt, limiting CSP to just 12 plays and 30 yards.
 
With just 12 total points between the teams combined across the first three quarters, the offenses finally broke free for a 34-point fourth quarter, but it was UMD who found the end zone three times compared to two touchdowns for Concordia.
 
In the fourth quarter, Concordia flipped its result from the 30-yard third quarter, putting up 120 yards of total offense while averaging 8.6 yards per play to close the game out strong offensively.
 
Concordia's defense was led by Andrew Egnarski's nine tackles, with six coming in the fourth quarter. In the secondary, cornerback Preston Piltoff had three pass breakups while his lone tackle was behind the line of scrimmage as CSP had 6.0 team TFLs, two more than UMD. Piltoff now has seven pass breakups on the year, averaging one per game.
 
Up front, defensive end Richard Ficociello had a two-sack performance while freshman defensive tackle Brad Walker secured his first career sack as CSP had three sacks to UMD's one.
 
Jaylin Richardson led CSP's ground game with 18 carries for 40 yards while Schwartz added 6-28. Out of the backfield, Lankford-Johnson had a pair of catches for 18 yards including a long of 16 and the short touchdown catch.
 
In the pass game, seven different Golden Bears secured receptions out of 10 players targeted. Wide receiver Jake Shepley led the team in receptions with three, going for 36 yards. He competed against his brother, UMD safety Marcus Shepley, who had four tackles in the game to finish third on the Bulldogs in tackles.
 
Former 2016 Bulldogs Foster Conzet and Isaiah Koran squared off against their former squad, with Conzet registering three tackles and Koran hauling in one catch for four yards.
 
UMD played two quarterbacks in the game, with Logan Graetz getting his third straight start under center, completing 15-26 for 264 yards and two touchdowns while rushing eight times for 22 yards. Opening day starter John Larson played multiple series, but only needed to throw one pass, a 3-yard completion. He also rushed six times for 47 yards.
 
Their top target was Armani Carmickle with seven catches for 149 yards and a long of 48, and Johnny McCormick had 3-42 with a touchdown.
 
UMD's offense came primarily from the ground game, rolling up 244 yards on 46 carries led by Cazz Martin's 11 carries for 81 yards and a touchdown. Three players rushed for 40-plus yards and seven players had at least 11 rushing yards.