ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Saturday at noon, Concordia-St. Paul (1-6 NSIC, 0-2 North) hosts Northern State (5-2 NSIC, 1-1 North) for Staff and Faculty Appreciation Day at Sea Foam Stadium, presented by the official game sponsors Summit Orthopedics.

This week's matchup sees the league's third best defense against the pass from the Golden Bears (195.0) hosting the league's third most prolific passing offense from Northern State (316.4), with the Wolves also adding the league's best pass efficiency (161.9) with 24 TDs and two INTs through seven games while opponents are completing just 54.4 percent (93-172) of passing against CSP's secondary.

FACULTY/STAFF APPRECIATION
For this weekend, each player was tasked with finding a staff or faculty member on campus who has helped make their college experience special or unique. Each staff or faculty member selected to represent a player will receive halftime recognition on the field or bench area, a free gift from the team, a personalized certificate with a message from the player about why they were chosen and an invitation to the pre-game parent/alumni tailgate provided by Anthony LeMay, Dawson Blanck and Eric Rathke along with parents from the team.

SUMMIT ORTHOPEDICS
CSP Athletics would like to thank this week's official game sponsor, Summit Orthopedics, the official team physicians for Golden Bear student-athletes. Fans are encouraged to stop by the Summit table to pick up their CSP/Summit Orthopedics rally towel!

WEATHER OUTLOOK
Saturday's game is expected to be played under mostly sunny skies with a high of 51 degrees with light and variable E wind of 5 miles per hour. Kickoff temperature is a forecast of 46 degrees, warming throughout the afternoon.

BUY TICKETS TO HOME GAMES ONLINE
New this year to Golden Bears is online ticketing. Buy tickets in advance and bring your QR code to the gates to skip the line! Friends and families who utilize the pass list will also be utilizing the online ticketing service while all students, faculty & staff will access their free CSP tickets through the service. Fans do not need to create a login, remember a username or password or download an app to purchase tickets, and tickets can still be purchased with cash at the gates. Find out more in the partnership announcement between CSP Athletics and HomeTown Ticketing.

WATCH ONLINE – NSIC NETWORK
All Golden Bear football games will be available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, supported by BlueFrame Technology. Visit nsicnetwork.com/cspbears on a laptop or desktop computer, download the NSIC Network app on your mobile device or watch on your supported OTT provider such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV. Search "NSIC Network" and download the app for the league's full sport and team lineups. NSIC NETWORK FAQ
 
All home games will feature the play-by-play broadcasting provided by Dan Flanagan, the voice of the Golden Bears for over a decade. The St. Paul, Minnesota native studied broadcasting at Fordham University (N.Y.) where he was the voice of the Rams' football and basketball teams in the NCAA Division I Patriot League.

Home broadcasts are produced by Stream Powered Productions, with the 15-foot by 8-foot MAX XL LED screen provided by Ultimate X Displays.
 
DOWNLOAD THE APP
Fans can download the CSP Bears fan app, free of charge and available in the App Store or on Google Play. The app contains rosters, schedules, scores, stats, news, social media and more! Customize your options to get notifications to your favorite teams, as well. Search "CSP Bears" in the app store to stay up-to-date on Golden Bear athletics.

FULL PREVIEW
Get the full story ahead of this Saturday's game in this week's game notes [pdf].

COACHES SHOW RETURNS TO TWIN CITIES RADIO IN 2021
The Coaches Show with Shannon Currier is back for a third year, once again hosted by Wally Langfellow of Minnesota Score. The show airs following the Minnesota high school football game of the week, typically on Friday evenings in the 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. hour on KYCR 1440 AM radio, available in the Twin Cities metro area. This week's guests include junior defensive end Richard Ficociello and freshman running back Jaylin Richardson.

For fans who miss the show or are outside of the radio station's Twin Cities reach, the entire show is accessible via the CSP Bears Podcast, available in Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play Music. It will typically be uploaded late Friday night (after the initial air time) or Saturday morning prior to the game. Search 'CSP Bears' into your favorite podcast provider! PODCAST HOME

2021 TEAM CAPTAINS
CSP head coach Shannon Currier features rotating team captains each week for the third year in a row in 2021. 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: junior safety Rhett Sheehan (3x) and junior defensive end Richard Ficociello from the defense and junior quarterback Abe Schwartz and sophomore center Sam Marshalek (6x).

SERIES HISTORY: NORTHERN STATE 8, CONCORDIA 7
The Golden Bears won seven of the nine meetings between 2001 and 2011, but the Wolves have controlled the bookends of the series, winning the first two meetings in 1999 and 200 in CSP's first two years in the NSIC, and winning each of the last four contests played since 2012.

In St. Paul, Concordia is 5-3 against NSU and is 1-2 against the Wolves at Sea Foam Stadium which opened in 2009.

Coach Currier (2000-03 & 2016-present) holds a 3-3 record against the Wolves, beating Northern State three straight years from 2001-03, but NSU has won the two games since Currier's return in 2016 and 2018.

LAST MEETING, 2018: NORTHERN ST 35, CONCORDIA 28
The final margin on the scoreboard (7) nearly matched the final margin in the turnover battle (6), with Northern State leaving Sea Foam Stadium the victor with a 35-28 final.

Despite a season-high six turnovers, Concordia still had the ball in NSU territory in the fourth quarter, stalling on downs (4th & 3) at the NSU 44 yard line with 2:37 to play. CSP also fumbled a punt return at its own 16 yard line with 1:35 to play.

Concordia racked up 494 yards of total offense in the loss, rushing for 232 yards while holding NSU to 100 yards, and out-passing the Wolves 262-252. Concordia also had 27 first downs and a 34:00-26:00 time of possession advantage. CSP also converted 8-12 on third down and held NSU to 6-14.

The turnovers were decisive, as NSU returned an interception for a touchdown on CSP's opening drive at the NSU 21 yard line, and CSP also committed turnovers at the NSU 14, NSU 34 and NSU 15 yard lines to wipe out four scoring opportunities in the first three quarters. CSP also had an interception and a fumble in its own territory in the fourth quarter.

Northern State capitalized, scoring 28 points off turnovers.

After NSU took the first lead on the first quarter pick-6, the teams would see tie scores at 7, 14, 21, 28 with NSU answering each of CSP's scores as the Golden Bears never led.

CSP QB Dom McKinzy completed 19-31 for 262 yards and a TD and had a 1-yard rushing TD. His top target was wide receiver MJ Williams with 7-115 while Keyon Walters had 5-52 with a TD.

Lajuan Preston had his second-straight 100-yard rushing performanace, rushing for 141 yards on 21 carries (6.7) while Emanuel Jones had 10-74  on the ground including a 36-yard TD run.

After Jones' 36 yard TD run with 10:36 to play, CSP defensive lineman Kelly Pierce came up with a 4th down sack as the Wolves turned it over on downs with 6:42 to play.

But the Wolves intercepted the next play and returned it to the 6-yard line, scoring on the next play for the 35-28 lead with under six minutes to go.

Wolves QB Hunter Trautman completed 16-27 for 235 yards and four TDs while Dakota Larson had 7-141 and two TDs.

Chris Garrett had 2.5 sacks among his seven total tackles, and cornerback Marcus Haskins had his five game INT streak come to a close but added a pair of pass breakups for 13 PBUs on the year and 18 total passes defended.

LAST WEEK: UM DULUTH 33, CONCORDIA 13
The Golden Bears held the host Bulldogs off the scoreboard for nearly the entire first half on their homecoming game at Malosky Stadium before Curt Cox made a 51-yard field goal off the crossbar as time expired for a 3-0 lead.

It was the first of four field goals made by Cox when UMD had the wind at its backs in the second and third quarters, converting from 33, 31, 28 in the third with his final field goal as time expired in the quarter.

In the fourth quarter as CSP had the wind shift back to its favor, the Golden Bears scored a pair of touchdowns through the air, a 67-yarder from Abe Schwartz to Mason Van Zeeland on the first play of a drive and a late 2-yard connection from Schwartz to Brian Lankford-Johnson. But UMD also reached the end zone three times in the quarter, the first extending its lead to 19-0 early in the fourth quarter before Van Zeeland's 67-yarder, with two more UMD touchdowns after for a 33-7 lead with under three minutes to go.

Schwartz completed 12-22 for 154 yards and two TD passes while rushing six times for 28 yards in his first career start.

Van Zeeland led the receivers with 2-73 and the 67 yard TD while Schwartz connected with seven different targets.

Jaylin Richardson led the ground game with a season-high 18 carries, totaling 40 yards.

The defense was led by Richard Ficociello's two sacks among his four solo tackles while cornerback Preston Piltoff had three pass breakups and a tackle for loss.

NOTES ABOUT THE WOLVES
The Wolves are off to a 5-2 start overall behind a high scoring offense ranking second in the NSIC with 34.6 points per game and the league's third-ranked offense with 458.3 yards per game.

The Wolves are productive through the air, with the league's third-ranked pass attack with 316.4 passing yards per game and the most efficient pass attack (161.9) in the league with 24 TDs and just 2 INTs.

The Wolves have scored in 33 of 35 trips to the red zone, executing a league-best 25 red zone TDs and making all eight FG attempts.

The defense has been opportunistic, as well, leading the league with 13 INTs thanks, in part, to pressure up front as NSU is second in the NSIC with 19 sacks.

Hunter Trautman leads the offense, ranking third in the league with 2,176 passing yards while tying for the league high 24 TDs and just two INTs for a league-leading 161.1 efficiency. He also has 226 rushing yards and three TDs.

Dewaylon Ingram is his top target, as his 706 yards rank fourth in the NSIC, averaging 17.2 yards per catch with eight TDs while Dakota Larson is eighth in the NSIC with 607 yards at 12.6 per catch with nine TDs.

Brett Benton leads the ground game with 306 yards and three TDs while averaging 6.0 per carry.

Vance Barnes is dangerous in the return game with a league-high 532 kickoff return yards and a 24.2 avg.

Chase Teiken leads the defense with 48 tackles, ranking ninth in the NSIC while Brennan Kutterer (46), Nate Robinson (45) and Chance Olson (42) all rank in the league's top-20. Robinson's 13.5 TFLs is second-most in the league while Olson's five INTs lead the NSIC. While NSU is second in the league in sacks, no one has more than 3.0 but 11 players have at least 1.0.