MANKATO, Minn. – Concordia-St. Paul (1-4 NSIC) dropped its final NSIC North-South contest, falling 58-10 to #17 Minnesota State (4-1 NSIC).
 
The Mavericks' homecoming game started out with temperatures in the upper 60s and an overcast cover so thick that the Blakeslee Stadium lights were on throughout the contest. In the second half, the thick cloud cover produced rain throughout most of the rest of the contest.
 
The Golden Bears will look to snap a current three game losing streak next Saturday for homecoming at Sea Foam Stadium with a noon kickoff. Comet's Carnival opens at 2 p.m. and runs until 5 p.m. with CSP volleyball to follow at Gangelhoff Center at 6 p.m. All-inclusive homecoming wristbands including admission to Saturday's athletic events as well as unlimited food and rides at Comet's Carnival are still on sale. More information is available on the CSP Homecoming website.
 
Freshman running back Brandon Marenco, now in his second year in the program, rushed eight times for 67 yards and a 36 yard fourth quarter touchdown run in his debut. Three Golden Bear running backs totaled 148 rushing yards on 27 carries.
 
The Mavericks countered with 340 rushing yards on 53 attempts and five touchdowns on the ground and only needed to attempt 13 passes (5-13), two going for touchdowns.
 
Although the Golden Bears started today's game with the ball, the two teams traded 3-and-outs as the CSP defense was able to hold the Mavericks who had a 17-yard advantage in starting field position on the two teams' opening drives. CSP started with a touchback, while MSU opened on its own 42 yard line.

Concordia opened its second drive at its own 23 and after being forced to punt from its own 22, the Mavericks would start on their own 40 for its second possession. After a pair of running plays to start the drive gained 40 yards for MSU, the Golden Bears held strong on defense, limiting MSU to a red zone field goal to claim a 3-0 lead.
 
Starting field position was one of a handful of major advantages for the host Mavericks, who had an average starting field position at the 39 yard line while Concordia on average was backed up 13 yards to its own 26 in the first half.
 
The defense was able to withstand the early field position disadvantage by holding a surging MSU offense that scored 68 points on the road in a win at Minot State last week to just three points.

But another 3-and-out offensively allowed the Mavericks to build momentum, with a 41-yard touchdown run giving the hosts the first trip to the end zone with 5:04 to play in the first quarter.

From there, things escalated quickly as Maverick punt returner Ty'Shonan Brooks broke a 53-yard punt return for a score after CSP's ensuing drive stalled out despite a 23-yard pass from Conner Cordts to Joey Farley on 3^rd-and-long, giving Minnesota State a 17-0 lead at the quarter break.
 
Concordia secured a first down for the first time on their next drive following a pair of Cordts completion to Jaheim Arnold and Brian Lankford-Johnson for six yards each, but a drive that began on its own 8-yard line would once again end with a punt.
 
Four plays later, the Mavericks struck with another big play, this time a 42-yard passing touchdown for a 24-0 lead, the first of three touchdowns in the quarter as MSU put the game nearly out of reach 38-0 at the half.
 
In the first half, Concordia failed to cross its own 30 yard line in the first quarter, and it wasn't until Jaylin Richardson's 15 yard run on CSP's last drive of the second quarter that the Golden Bears moved into Maverick territory, executing six offensive plays and advancing as far as the MSU 32 yard line on a 14-yard run by Cordts before he was sacked on the next play on third down.
 
In the second half, the Mavericks opened with the ball, but on the second play from scrimmage, defensive tackle Shawn Aarhus pressured Maverick quarterback JD Ekowa, tipping his pass which was intercepted by Andrew Egnarski and returned to the 1-yard line, setting up a short field goal by freshman Sam Henson (25 yards).
 
Henson has started his career 5-for-7 on field goals in his first five games and is perfect on nine PATs.
 
But MSU didn't allow the opportunistic play by the CSP defense to shift the course of the game, using runs of 28 and 17 yards to set up a 21 yard touchdown pass and another big punt return of 23 yards by Brooks setting up a short field from the CSP 28 yard line for another Maverick touchdown and a 51-3 advantage with just under seven minutes to play in the game.
 
A 27-yard run by Lankford-Johnson late in the third quarter sparked CSP's best drive of the first three quarters, all on running plays with Lankford-Johnson rushing three times for 31 yards and Marenco rushing adding four carries for 16 yards when the quarter ended with CSP looking at a 4^th-and-3 from the MSU 33 yard line, when the Mavericks tackled Marenco for a four yard loss and turning CSP over on downs after a three and a half minute drive ended with nine plays for 38 yards.
 
Marenco's hard running late in the third quarter presented him with more opportunities in the fourth quarter, bookending CSP's final drive of the game by starting it with a 22 yard burst and capping the drive with a 36 yard touchdown.

CSP's lone touchdown drive was an 8-play, 88-yard march with all 78 on seven rushing attempts and spanning 3:35 of play.
 
Adding to Marenco's team-best ground performance were Jaylin Richardson with 10 carries for 42 yards and Lankford-Johnson with nine carries for 39 yards.
 
Cordts completed five passes in the game to five different receivers and once again targeted eight Golden Bears, and did not commit a turnover on the day as CSP won the turnover margin 1-0.
 
Freshman punter Parker Dahlman continued his strong season, punting for a 40.9 average on 11 punts with a long of 51 and a pair inside the 20.
 
Defensively, the Golden Bears tallied 9.0 tackles for loss by nine different players led by Richard Ficociello with 1.5. Freshman linebacker Caden Baarts had five tackles and 1.0 for loss while safety Rhett Sheehan had five solo tackles.
 
Charles Coleman led the Maverick offense with six carries for 88 yards and a pair of touchdown runs, but it was a group effort for MSU as three players topped 66 rushing yards and seven different carriers topped 25 yards. Hayden Ekern completed 4-of-5 for 88 yards and a pair of touchdowns of 42 and 21 yards while JD Ekowa was 1-of-8 for 16 yards but added 4-27 rushing with a pair of touchdown runs.