ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Saturday at noon, Concordia-St. Paul (1-4 NSIC, 0-0 North) opens NSIC North Division play against Bemidji State (3-2 NSIC, 1-0 North) for homecoming at Sea Foam Stadium.

Temperatures are expected to be in the low 70s by kickoff, warming to 78 for a high with a mix of clouds and sun early moving to overcast conditions as the day progresses with SE wind at 10 miles per hour, growing to 12mph and a small chance (<4%) of="">

Saturday's matchup pits the nationally seventh-ranked Bemidji State passing offense with 339.0 yards per game against Concordia-St. Paul's 18th-ranked pass defense, allowing a league-leading 148.8 passing yards per game.

HOMECOMING 2021
This Saturday's game between CSP and BSU marks Concordia's homecoming with a noon start followed by the 5 p.m. volleyball game against Minnesota Crookston at Gangelhoff Center. Fans who have purchased a Homecoming wristband receive free admission to football and volleyball on Saturday, Comet's Carnival which is open from 2-5 p.m. on Saturday on the Sea Foam Stadium plaza, and soccer on Sunday. Perks for the wristband include unlimited rides and food! Prices are $30 for adults (13+), $15 for children (4-12) with children three and younger free. CSP students (with ID) will receive free admission. Purchase a wristband at the registration tent at Sea Foam Stadium on Saturday. Those who have already purchased tickets to the football game can proceed to the registration tent to purchase a discounted wristband for $15 for adults (13+) and $10 for children (4-12) with children three and under free.

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 freshman kicker Sam Henson and senior cornerback Preston Piltoff.

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! CSP BEARS PODCAST ONLINE

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: freshman quarterback Conner Cordts (6x) and sophomore center Sam Marshalek (5x) on offense and senior cornerback Preston Piltoff (4x) and junior safety Rhett Sheehan on defense.

SERIES HISTORY: BEMIDJI STATE 9, CONCORDIA 8
The Golden Bears and Beavers have had a competitive history entering the 18th all-time meeting dating back to 1999 when CSP joined the Northern Sun.

Concordia dominated the early years, winning all four games in head coach Shannon Currier's first term from 2000-03 after dropping the opening tilt in 1999, and won five of the first seven overall.

Bemidji State flipped the momentum with four straight wins between 2006 and 2009, but the teams have split the most recent six contests from 2010 to present.

The teams played every year from 1999 to 2011 before the NSIC's division split caused the series to shift to an every other year format. But in 2021, the teams are in the same division once again.

Concordia is 2-2 against BSU at Sea Foam Stadium (2009-present) and 6-2 against BSU in home games including the Griffin Stadium era.

LAST MEETING, 2019: CONCORDIA 24, BSU 23 (OT)
Concordia cornerback Preston Piltoff intercepted BSU quarterback Emmett Enright on Bemidji State's two-point try in overtime in a fitting end to a game that CSP led throughout thanks to three first half turnovers by the Beavers.

Junior defensive end Chris Garrett set the CSP sack record in the victory with a pair of first half strip sacks with CSP recovering both fumbles, and deflected a pass that was intercepted by linebacker Gabe Nkumu as CSP built a 17-7 lead at the break.

Garrett finished the game with 11 tackles, 3.0 TFLs, 2.0 sacks, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and a pass breakup.

Concordia improved to 5-3 with the win while BSU fell to the same record.

Garrett set the career sacks record with 33.5 in just 25 games, a feat that is even more impressive as he broke the record held by Zach Moore, who had 33.0 sacks from 2009-13 across 39 games in four seasons.

Moore would become Concordia's first-ever NFL Draft pick, taken in the 6th round in the 2014 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, winning a Super Bowl in his rookie season and would go on to play in five NFL seasons.

Garrett, meanwhile, had his senior year stripped due to COVID-19 and while prepared to play his final year of eligibility in 2021 with CSP, he would instead become Concordia's second NFL Draft Pick in the 2021 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Rams in the seventh round, making the roster this fall.

In the 2019 game, Garrett's younger brother Darios Crawley-Reid had his first career 100-yard rushing performance with 15-106 and two touchdowns. He was joined in the 100-yard club that day by running back Shaq Johnson, who had 103 combined yards with 21-68 rushing and 4-35 receiving.

It was a windy fall afternoon at Sea Foam Stadium, and with CSP winning the coin toss, had the advantage to play the conditions and build the lead and momentum in the first half.

Entering the fourth quarter, CSP had a 20-11 edge in first downs and 28:13 to 16:47 margin in time of possession to go with the 17-7  lead.

BSU converted a field goal with 9:30 to play and used an 11-play, 70-yard drive across 4:09 to tie the game on a 13-yard passing TD with 1:51 to play, sending the game to overtime.

CSP had the ball first, with Johnson's 14 yard run followed by a nine yard run by Crawley-Reid, who punched it in from a yard out two plays later for the upper hand, 24-17.

BSU wasn't able to pick up a first down on its attempt, facing a 4th-and-9 from the CSP 24 yard line, but scored on the fourth down play before Piltoff sealed the win with the INT on the two point attempt.

Each team rushed for 196 yards in the game and BSU out-paced CSP by 13 yards (169-156) in the air, but Concordia forced four total turnovers to BSU's two

Maxon Hutton completed 18-35 for 156 yards and a TD while adding 22 rushing yards. He found six different targets, hitting five of them at least twice while three players had four receptions each including Jabril Clewis (4-47), who had a 17-yard TD catch in the first quarter to make it a 10-0 lead for CSP early.

BSU running back Jalen Frye was busy, pounding the ball with 46 carries for 151 yards with a long of 32, averaging 3.2 per carry and adding three catches for eight yards to total 49 touches.

Enright completed 14-25 for 169 yards and three TD passes but was intercepted twice. Malik Williams had 2-18 receiving with a pair of touchdowns, and added a 51-yard run in the game.

LAST WEEK: MINNESOTA STATE 58, CONCORDIA 10
Playing in its final NSIC North-South contest of the season, Concordia was unable to spoil Minnesota State's homecoming, falling to the 17th-ranked Mavericks 58-10 at Blakeslee Stadium.

Freshman running back Brandon Marenco was CSP's offensive bright spot, rushing eight times for 67 yards including a 36-yard TD burst in the fourth quarter.

Three Golden Bear running backs totaled 144 rushing yards on 28 carries, with Brian Lankford Johnson rushing for a season-best 39 yards on nine carries with a long of 27 and Jaylin Richardson adding 38 on 11 carries with a long of 15.

Overall, CSP finished with its second-straight 100-yard rushing game with 37-121 as a team.

MSU countered by rushing for 352 yards on 53 team rushing attempts and five touchdowns led by Charles Coleman's 6-88 and two scores while Deyon Campbell added 3-70 and Micah Cooper 9-66.

CSP was able to hold MSU to under 100 team passing yards, stifling QB JD Ekowa to 1-8 passing for 16 yards, but the veteran QB did manage two rushing touchdowns on 4-27 yards. Hayden Ekern completed 4-5 for 81 yards and two TDs, as well.

For CSP, Joey Farley had the biggest play in the pass game, a 23-yard reception from Conner Cordts, who spread out his five completions to five different targets, finishing 5-20 for 46 yards while playing turnover-free under center.

Rhett Sheehan and Caden Baarts led CSP's defense with five tackles each, with Baarts chipping in 1.0 of the team's 8.0 TFLs and Jake Richardson added a sack up front. Shawn Aarhus also disrupted the backfield, pressuring and tipping Ekowa's pass to start the third quarter that would be intercepted and returned to the 1-yard line by Andrew Egnarski, setting up CSP's first points of the day on a 25-yard Sam Henson field goal.

Freshman punter Parker Dahlman had a big day, coming up one punt shy of the single game record, punting 11 times for 450 yards, the third most punting yards in a game. He had a 40.9 yard average, blasted a pair of 50-plus yard punts and had one inside the 20.

NOTES ABOUT THE BEAVERS
Entering 2021, Bemidji State was picked second in the NSIC North Division Preseason Coaches' Poll and picked up a first place vote, and picked sixth overall in the 14-team NSIC Overall poll.

BSU is coming off of an 8-3 overall record in 2019, tied for tops in the NSIC North Division with Minnesota Duluth, but finished 6-1 in NSIC North play, a game behind 7-0 UMD for the division title.

The Beavers have continued at a similar pace in 2021, with a 3-2 overall record and 1-0 mark in the North Division. After winning their first two games to open the year, 24-16 at Sioux Falls and 38-28 over Wayne State, BSU fell 45-24 at Minnesota State and 52-24 at home to Augustana before bouncing back last week in the NSIC North opener 49-35 over Minot State.

So far, BSU has done its damage in the air, boasting the seventh ranked passing attack in the country with 339 yards per game and ranked 24th with 15 yards per completion. They also protect the QB, allowing just three sacks through five games to rank seventh in the nation, and only 17 tackles for loss against on the year, eighth nationally. With 455 yards of total offense per game, BSU has the 20th ranked output and the nation's 25th-ranked turnover margin (11-7).

Leading the team is QB Brandon Alt, ranked third in the league  and fourth in the country with 1,619 yards but has completed 48.2 percent of his 222 passes with a 16-6 TD-INT ratio.

His top target, Brendan Beaulieu (31-549, 2 TD) is fifth in the league and 11th nationally in receiving yards and Malik Williams (17-304, 5 TD) ranks 10th NSIC while Dhel Duncan-Busby (18-234, 1 TD) is in the top-20 in the league.

On the ground, Makaio Harn is ninth NSIC with 334 yards, averaging 4.9 per carry.