MINOT, N.D. - Junior running back Lajuan Preston rushed for a career-high 143 yards on the road, but Concordia-St. Paul (1-10 NSIC, 0-6 North) fell short in a 28-20 loss at Minot State (2-9 NSIC, 1-5 North) on a cold, snowy and windy Saturday at Herb Parker Stadium in the Magic City.

Preston, who had missed the previous five games with an injury, became Concordia's first 100-yard rusher of the season and vaulted from fourth on the team in rushing to the team lead for the year with 253 yards on just 48 carries, a 5.3 average in parts of six games.

He bruised, gashed and dashed his way to 143 yards on 23 rushing attempts, nearly all for positive yardage with only two lost yards on the day and a long of 33. He now has 1,266 career rushing yards on 221 carries, a 5.7 career average per carry.

The Golden Bears compiled 178 yards on the ground as a team, a 2021 season-high, on just 33 rushes for a 5.4 team average.

But Minot State, behind the league's 2021 rushing leader Ali Mohamed, ran for 242 yards on 54 attempts as Mohamed won the rushing title by rushing for 125 yards on 34 carries.

Concordia kicker Sam Henson capped off an impressive freshman season by converting a pair of field goals, a 25-yarder in the second quarter to bring CSP within a 7-3 deficit, and a 45-yard field goal late in the first half to make it a 21-13 Minot State lead.

He finished the year 10-of-13 on field goals, knocking down four from 40-plus yards and converting all six from inside of 40. He made a pair of PATs and was perfect on the year in 18 tries. His 10 field goals made put him in elite company at Concordia with the eighth double-digit field goal season and getting there in the fewest attempts (13), one better than Tom Obarski in 2012 (10-14).

In between Henson field goals in a busy second quarter for the CSP offense, redshirt freshman wide receiver had a 59-yard touchdown run, a fitting conclusion for the playmaking wideout who has a 40-yard touchdown pass to his credit on one attempt and now has a 59-yard touchdown run on just two career carries. He also had a short 4-yard catch, giving him 12-98 on the year without a receiving touchdown.

In the second half, sophomore quarterback Abe Schwartz returned to the field following a two-game absence due to injury and promptly engineered a scoring drive early in the third quarter, marching 75 yards on nine plays in 4:44 to cut the score to 21-20 with over 25 minutes of game clock remaining to snap the program's eight game losing streak.

On the drive, Preston carried the ball on the first four plays including a 33-yard run into Minot territory to the Beaver 42-yard line. Schwartz had just one third down on the drive, a 3rd-and-7 from the Minot 39 yard line, connecting with CSP's top receiver of 2021 Mason Van Zeeland for 19 yards to the Beaver 20.

Schwartz connected with Joey Farley, the team's reception leader, two plays later for 13 yards to the Minot 5-yard line for a 1st-and-goal. Two plays later, Schwartz found freshman Jaheim Arnold for a 10-yard touchdown strike.

Farley finished the day as CSP's only receiver with two catches, going for 24 yards. He ended the year with 31 catches for 188 yards while Van Zeeland had a team-high 454 yards on 23 catches (19.7 avg) and Arnold had 13-192, matching Van Zeeland and Jake Shepley with a team-high three touchdowns.

The Golden Bears would only get three more possessions the rest of the way, executing one first down, going 3-and-out in the third quarter, getting an 11-yard first down pass from Schwartz to Farley before being forced to punt, a 63-yard blast by freshman Parker Dahlman following a 5-play, 16-yard drive early in the fourth quarter, and going out on downs in four plays late in the fourth.

The pivotal moment was Minot State's long, plotting fourth quarter drive. Leading 21-10, Minot State took over at their own 1-yard line with 11:55 to play, and turned to Mohamed to move the chains repeatedly. He ripped off runs of 5,12, 4 and 2 yards before the Beavers were put into a 3rd-and--4 situation, completing a 6-yard pass to the Minot 30 yard line. Following another 3-yard run by Mohamed, Beaver quarterback Marshaun Campbell escaped for a 47-yard keeper to the CSP 20-yard line.

The Golden Bear defense responded, backing up Minot State 13 yards for a 3rd-and-23 from the CSP 33 yard  line, but a face mask after a rush for no gain gave Minot State an automatic first down at the CSP 18 yard line. They converted one more third down before punching it in two plays later with 2:51 to go.

The end result was a 14-play, 99-yard drive lasting 9:04 in cold, windy weather with three third down conversions.

A short kickoff following a 15-yard Minot State unsportsmanlike conduct penalty put Concordia in great field position at the MSU 40 yard line, but the Beavers were able to contain the Concordia passing game on downs before running the clock out.

Concordia's defense held Minot State under 300 yards of total offense with 285 yards, the second time the Golden Bears have limited an opponent under the 300 mark, last doing so in week two's 24-6 win over Upper Iowa with 251 yards. The secondary held Minot to 43 passing yards on 10 attempts (four completions), the third time holding an opponent under 100 yards and a season-best, breaking a streak of five straight games allowing at least 250 passing yards but the fifth time this year holding an opponent under 200.

The defensive effort was led by junior defensive end Richard Ficociello's 3.0 tackles for loss, also forcing a fumble while three others, Dalton Smerchek, Mark O'Reilly and Keegan Larson each had 1.0 TFL. Smerchek also added nine tackles, one shy of Andrew Egnarski's team-high 10, while freshman Anthony Ukofia had seven tackles and a forced fumble.

Ficociello led the team with 11.5 TFLs on the year while Egnarski led the defense with 68 tackles, followed by Sheehan with 63 and Smerchek with 61. Ukofia's seven tackles were a new personal best, doubling his season total to 14. Senior cornerback Preston Piltoff recorded his eighth pass breakup of the year in nine games played, giving him 21 passes defended in two impactful seasons playing in 20 games in the CSP secondary.

But Concordia didn't have an answer on third downs on either side of the ball, with Minot State converting 7-of-11 including a pair of 3rd-and-longs converted via penalty while Concordia managed to convert 2-of-9 on third down.