ST. PAUL, Minn. - Playing at Sea Foam Stadium for the first time since November 16, 2019, Concordia-St. Paul scored a 24-6 victory over Upper Iowa (0-2 NSIC) on Saturday afternoon on a warm, breezy afternoon on campus.

The Golden Bears, now 1-1 NSIC on the young season, have won three in a row against Upper Iowa, are 5-1 against the Peacocks at Sea Foam Stadium and 11-4 against UIU in the all-time series.

They'll head to Sioux Falls next Saturday for a 1 p.m. kickoff at Bob Young Field in NSIC cross divisional play.

Concordia is coming off back-to-back winning seasons at home (3-2 in 2018, 4-2 in 2019), winning its fifth-straight home opener since head coach Shannon Currier returned to the team in 2016. In fact, in Currier's career, the Golden Bears are 9-0 including home opening wins from 2000 to 2003.

Since Sea Foam Stadium opened in 2009, returning the program to campus, Concordia has produced a 22-36 record. But when scoring 20 or more points, the Golden Bears are 19-18, and even better when holding opponents under 20 points with a 16-0 record.

Freshman quarterback Conner Cordts took a step forward from his solid debut last Thursday night, producing a strong 20-of-27 passing performance for 249 yards and two touchdowns. He added 37 positive rushing yards on the ground, but took four sacks to finish with six net rushing yards in the victory. He connected with nine different receivers and targeted 10, showing poise in distributing the ball while playing turnover-free football for the second week in a row.

Meanwhile, the CSP defense looked strong on its home field, securing a pair of interceptions and a fumble recovery for a 3-0 advantage in the take-give, while holding UIU to 257 yards of total offense at 3.8 yards per play and just 78 yards on 33 rushing attempts on the ground. The defensive front also added five sacks with sophomore linebacker Andrew Egnarski producing 10 tackles and 3.5 sacks with a fumble recovery.

Although the first quarter was scoreless, Concordia appeared to have the momentum with a 88-32 advantage in total offense while converting 3-of-6 on third down and 1-1 on fourth down and had a 9:29 to 5:31 advantage in the opening quarter.

Concordia's day was sparked early in the second quarter when junior safety Rhett Sheehan came up with a third down interception at the UIU 40 yard line, returning it 30 yards to the 10 to put Concordia in the red zone.

Three plays later, freshman running back Jaylin Richardson dashed in for his first career touchdown, a 1-yard run to give Concordia its first lead of the season with 13:21 to play in the half. Richardson finished with 61 rushing yards on 13 carries with a long of 20.

Later in the quarter, it was redshirt freshman wide receiver Mason Van Zeeland who provided the boost, with Cordts connecting with him for a 35 yard pass play to the UIU 29 yard line. Two plays later, they connected again for a 25 yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead with just over a minute left in the half, the first career touchdown for both players.

Van Zeeland finished the day with the two catches for 60 yards.

Concordia seemed in control at the half with a 188-95 advantage in total offense, converting two of three trips to the red zone for touchdowns and keeping the Peacocks out of the red zone entirely. Cordts was nearly perfect, as well, completing 16-of-19 for 163 yards.
 
The two teams played scoreless football midway through the third quarter, with Concordia freshman punter Parker Dahlman producing a 52 yard punt, one of two 50-plus yard punts in the game, to push the Peacocks back to the 20 yard line as senior Dalton Smerchek forced a fumble, backing the Peacocks up two more yards after the long punt. Dahlman averaged 47.3 yards on six punts in the game.

Later in the quarter, Cordts hit sophomore wide receiver Nathan Gimza in stride across the middle near midfield with Gimza dashing to the UIU 25 yard line for a 40-yard connection, which ultimately set up a 38 yard field goal for freshman Sam Henson, who is 3-of-4 on field goal tries in his first two career games.

Gimza finished with five catches for 59 yards and led the team with 28 yards after the catch. Joey Farley, making his debut at wide receiver, also had five catches for 26 yards and had 27 yards after the catch.

Now leading 17-0, the Golden Bears forced a Peacock fumble on the ensuing drive as Upper Iowa approached the red zone, with Egnarski recovering to secure possession at the CSP 31 yard line for a three score lead late in the third quarter (2:43).

On Concordia's first drive of the fourth quarter, Cordts struck again, this time hitting freshman wide receiver Jaheim Arnold for a 33 yard touchdown over the middle for a commanding 24-0 lead with 7:47 to go.

On the Golden Bears' final touchdown drive (9-73, 3:56), four different Golden Bears combined for eight rushing attempts for 44 yards before the Cordts-Arnold touchdown strike, which was the first passing play of the drive.

The Peacocks finally found the end zone with 2:49 to play as Marcus Orr took a hit out of the pocket but not before he found Xavier Saldana for an 11 yard touchdown.

Concordia held Upper Iowa to 16-34 passing as TJ Smith and Marcus Orr each went 8-17 and each threw an interception, combining for 179 yards.

CSP senior cornerback Preston Piltoff was strong on the outside, making seven tackles and adding two pass breakups while fellow senior corner Lorenzo Kendricks also added an interception.

Joining Egnarski with sacks in the game were senior defensive end Jake Richardson with a solo sack, while junior defensive tackle Shawn Aarhus added a half sack among his six tackles and stripped a fumble that led to the Egnarski recovery to stop a UIU scoring drive in the third quarter.

Concordia finished with a 335 yards of total offense, limiting the Peacocks to 257 and held UIU to 5-of-15 on third down.