ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul heads to Minot State in the final contest of the 2021 season, with the Golden Bears and Beavers each seeking their first NSIC North Division victory at Herb Parker Stadium.

The two teams each sport 1-9 NSIC records and 0-5 NSIC North Division marks, and have each picked up a home win against Upper Iowa.

WEATHER OUTLOOK
Winter has come to the Magic City, located near the Canadian border in the northwestern part of the state, with an expected high temperature of 36 degrees, a low of 26 and an inch of snow expected along with a shifting wind, starting at SSE 8 mph at kickoff, shifting to W 9 mph at noon and NW 10-13 mph until 2 p.m.

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

This Saturday's game will be broadcast by BEK Sports Network with audio play-by-play by Mick Tidrow. The BEK Sports Network broadcast will be the production used for the NSIC Network stream, as well.
 
DOWNLOAD THE CSP BEARS 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 ready to close out its third year, 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 running back Lajuan Preston and sophomore defensive lineman Keegan Larson.

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!

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 are all from the defensive side of the ball: junior safety/linebacker Rhett Sheehan (6x), senior linebacker Dalton Smerchek (5x) junior defensive end Richard Ficociello (3x) and junior defensive tackle Shawn Aarhus.

SERIES HISTORY: CONCORDIA 6, MINOT STATE 2
The Golden Bears have won six of the eight all-time meetings, with Minot State capturing a win the last time these two teams met in 2019 in Minot, North Dakota (38-31) to snap CSP's five game winning streak.

The teams have split their four meetings played at Herb Parker Stadium including the most recent meeting in 2019.

Under head coach Shannon Currier, Concordia is 1-1 against Minot State, winning 24-0 at home in 2017 before the 2019 road loss.

LAST MEETING, 2019: MINOT STATE 38, CONCORDIA 31
The Golden Bears put up a season-high 27 first downs, rolling for 197 rushing yards and 262 passing yards in a balanced day of 459 yards of total offense, but couldn't keep pace with Minot State who had 502 yards of total offense on an unseasonably warm and breezy North Dakota afternoon.

Just a week after CSP had tied the NCAA DII record for most sacks in a game in a win over MSU Moorhead, and a week after Minot State had nearly two feet of snow fall on its home field, it was Minot State who carried the day.

The Beavers' Ben Bolinske rushed for 141 yards on 10 carries and completed 14-of-18 for 194 yards, combining for four TDs (3 rush, 1 pass). He wasn't intercepted, sacked or even tackled for a loss on the day.

Concordia linebacker Gabe Nkumu had a big day, posting the second-most tackles in a game in school history with 19 including 1.0 TFL.

Golden Bear senior quarterback Maxon Hutton had a big day, setting career-highs with 22 completions, 39 attempts and 262 yards passing, adding two TD passes whle rushing 13-41 to surpass 300 yards of total offense (303).

He connected with passing TDs twice to Jabril Clewis who had 6-77 receiving while fellow senior WR MJ Williams had 7-91 receiving with a long of 45 to set up a first quarter FG.

In the backfield, Shaq Johnson had 16-69 rushing while Darios Crawley-Reid added 76 yards on just eight carries, a 9.5 average and a 24-yard TD run to give CSP a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter.

Trailing 21-10 late in the second quarter, the Golden Bears forced a fumble with Chris Garrett recovering in the end zone in a goal line stand, and opened the second half with two long TD drives (14-75, 5:49 & 13-75, 5:48).

Unfortunately, Minot State scored in between CSP's two long drives, and still led 28-24 at the end of three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, CSP kept Minot State out of the end zone in a red zone situation, forcing a short 19-yard field goal to stay within a score (31-24) with 10:03 to play.

But the offense was stopped for a rare 3-and-out and Bolinske answered with a 40-yard rushing score on the next play to push the margin to 38-24 with 7:43 to go.

Although Minot State had excellent field position on its next three possessions (CSP 40 via punt, MINOT 49 via punt, CSP 22 via INT and CSP 43 via onside recovery), the defense held strong in blanking the Beavers the rest of the way.

Offensively, CSP was efficient, moving 78 yards on 8-plays with Hutton capping the drive with a 19-yard TD to Clewis with 1:51 to go.

But the Golden Bears' last possession meant CSP had to go 91 yards in 10 seconds, with the comeback bid falling short.

LAST WEEK: MSU MOORHEAD 24, CONCORDIA 3
The Golden Bears hosted senior day last Saturday, a warm and sunny November afternoon to honor the 19 departing seniors along with third year student assistant coach Alain Yang.

But CSP couldn't produce a victory, falling 24-3 to MSU Moorhead. The Golden Bear defense had its hands full again, facing the fifth-ranked passing offense in the league after previously facing the top three passing attacks in the previous four games. MSU Moorhead entered averaging 274.8 yards per game through the air, and early on the Golden Bear defense delivered.

Concordia held the Dragons to 42 yards on 18 plays in the first quarter including just 36 passing yards, while stopping MSUM to 1-of-5 on third downs along with a fourth stop in at the CSP 17 yard line in the red zone with a pass breakup near the sideline by freshman corner Kahlil Robinson.

Concordia, using its third string QB Bryce Sievers and mixing in converted safety Hunter Thompson as a change-of-pass QB along with converted linebacker Chandler Dahlquist at running back, clung to a scoreless tie at the quarter break, the fifth time this season CSP was tied or leading at the end of the first.

In the second quarter, MSUM converted a 4th-and-1 and a 3rd-and-2 to keep a drive alive en route to a short rushing score to break the tie. Three plays later, an INT in CSP territory set-up a 26-yard pass TD on the next play for a sudden 14-0 MSUM advantage just over three and a half minutes into the second quarter.

The defense continued to response, picking up a 3-and-out and stopped the Dragons the following two possessions to keep the 14-point deficit intact entering halftime.

The Golden Bears issued just 131 yards of offense to the Dragons in the first half, aided by a pair of sacks and three tackles for loss from sophomore Keegan Larson.

In the third quarter, Dahlquist rumbled his way for three 5-yard gains on CSP's opening drive, and Sievers added a 7-yard scramble for a first down to jumpstart the ground game.

Sievers would also connect with Mason Van Zeeland for 16 yards on 3rd-and-4 from the CSP 43 to move into Dragon territory, and hit Jaheim Arnold for 16 yards to move into field goal range, where freshman Sam Henson made a 41-yarder, his third 40-plus yard FG of the year while moving to 8-of-11 overall.

Concordia out-gained the Dragons 78-70 in the third quarter with each team making a field goal, and CSP held MSU Moorhead to just 201 yards of total offense through three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, each team had just two possessions, but MSUM's 12-play, 80-yard drive spanning 4:48 of important clock time extended the Dragon lead to 24-3 with 8:18 to go, a three score lead that would prove too much to overcome.

While Larson had a pair of first half sacks, he was joined in the backfield by Mark O'Reilly who also finished with a pair of sacks while junior Luke Dunsmoor added punch to the DL with 2.0 TFLs on the day.

Dahlquist finished teh day with 21 rushing yards on 13 attempts in his first extended look as a ball carrier while Sievers led the team's run game with 8-24 and completed 11-26 for 116 yards.

He found Van Zeeland five times for 61 yards while Arnold had 3-39 receiving.

Dragon quarterback Tommy Falk finished a productive day 33-41 for 274 yards, connecting with Grady Bresnahan 12 times for 119 yards and two TDs.

NOTES ABOUT THE BEAVERS
The Beavers enter play seeking their first NSIC North Division victory and are coming off back-to-back losses at home to Minnesota Duluth (21-34) two weeks ago and at UMary (31-49) last week.

After starting the year allowing 48-plus points in the first five games and facing margins of 38-plus in each of the first four games, the Beavers have evened out some of the losses as the season has progressed, falling 49-35 at Bemidji State, 29-17 to MSU Moorhead, 36-35 at Northern State in weeks 5, 6 and 7 before a 17-14 week 8 win at home against Upper Iowa and haven't lost by more than 18 since week 4.

The Beavers are led by the league's second-leading rusher, Ali Mohamed with 1,034 yards, just two shy of the league lead and 13th-most in NCAA Division II. He averages 4.8 per carry and has nine total TDs.

Despite Mohamed's 103.4 rushing yards per game, the Beavers check in at ninth in the NSIC with 118.2 rushing yards per game and are allowing 226.1 to opponents with 31 rushing TDs against - both 14th in the NSIC.

Minot State also allows 449.7 per game in total offense, last in the league while gaining 339.6 yards per game to rank 10th.

Three different QBs have guided the Minot offense at times this year led by Dawson Macleary with 1,697 yards and an 8-16 TD-INT ratio. Ben Bolinske adds 271 yards, a TD and 2 INTs and Marshaun Campbell has completed 13-18 (.722) for 183 yards, a TD and 2 INTs.

As a team, Minot has passed for 2,214 yards, 11 TDs and 20 INTs. Peyton Lamoureux leads the team with 36 catches for 669 yards, an 18.6 average and 5 TDs while Nathan Young (39-458) and Jaxon Lundeen (32-297) have posted solid seasons.

Kyle VanBerkom leads the defense with 68 tackles while Logan Krueger has a team-best 8.0 TFLs and 4.0 sacks.

Roma'n Grissett has three INTs and five PBUs while Knylen Miller-Levi has defended 11 passes with nine PBUs and a pair of INTs.

Justin Cash leads the NSIC with a 42.9 punt average on 50 punts with 12 inside the 20 and 10 of 50-plus.