ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul football team (1-1 NSIC) heads to face Sioux Falls (1-1 NSIC) this Saturday for a 1 p.m. kickoff at Bob Young Field as the Cougars host Military Appreciation Day. Active and retired military members receive free admission with a valid military ID and get $5 off tickets for their families.

Concordia is seeking its first road win of 2021 while the Cougars are seeking their first home win of the year. Tickets are available to purchase in advance online. The weather forecast calls for a 72 degree game time temperature with a 16 mile per hour wind, with temperatures climbing to the upper 70s by the end of the game and 0 percent chance of precipitation.

WATCH OR LISTEN ONLINE
All Concordia football games are available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, supported by BlueFrame Technology. There are multiple ways to watch: 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" to download the app. NSIC NETWORK FAQ

This weekend's games will be called by Tom Fredrick, the voice of the Cougars on KWSN with analyst Tim Hiatt and sideline reporter Chad Birger. The audio will be carried locally in Sioux Falls on KWSN radio FOX Sports 98.1 FM or 1230 AM.
LISTEN ONLINE: STATION WEBSITE | ANDROID | APPLE | ALEXA-ENABLED

COACHES SHOW RETURNS TO TWIN CITIES AIRWAVES
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 redshirt freshman wide receiver Mason Van Zeeland and sophomore linebacker Andrew Egnarski. All shows are archived, last week's show featured freshman quarterback Conner Cordts and senior linebacker Dalton Smerchek.

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!
LISTEN ONLINE: PODCAST HOME PAGE | KYCR 1440 AM STREAM LINK

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.

WEEK 3 PREVIEW
For the full preview of this Saturday's week three matchup, view this week's game notes.
WEEK 3 GAME NOTES [ pdf ]

SERIES HISTORY: SIOUX FALLS  12, CONCORDIA 2
The Golden Bears have tangled with the Cougars 14 times with USF holding a 12-2 lead in the all-time series. The Golden Bears won the first meeting in 1971 and the most recent meeting in 2019, with USF winning the 12 in between.

Prior to CSP's move to Division II (1999 season), the teams met four times in a row from 1971-74 and again in 1982 and 1983. The series was reopened in 2012 when Sioux Falls made the move from NAIA to NCAA Division II and joined the NSIC in 2012, playing every year since.

In Sioux Falls, the Golden Bears are 0-4 since the Cougars joined the league with CSP looking for its first win at Bob Young Field.

LAST MEETING, 2019: CONCORDIA 41, SIOUX FALLS 17
The Golden Bears opened the season by snapping a 12-game losing streak against the Cougars with a 41-17 victory at Sea Foam Stadium, extending Coach Shannon Currier's home opening winning streak to eight games.

Quarterback Maxon Hutton completed 13-of-22 for 159 yards and two touchdowns, and added 14 carries for 67 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Trailing 7-3 after each team had one possession, Concordia thwarted a goal line drive by the Cougars as linebacker Dalton Smerchek stripped USF quarterback Caden Walters at the one yard line with cornerback Preston Piltoff recovering.

Smerchek had a big day, and would later be named NSIC Defensive Player of the Week in what would be an All-NSIC South Division honorable mention season. He had a game-high nine tackles, had 1.5 tackles for loss, a forced fumble on the goal line and recovered a fumble on the punt team. He also had a pass breakup and one of his two QB hurries came on a fourth down play early in the fourth quarter in CSP territory.

The Golden Bears converted the goal line turnover into a second field goal, and on USF's third drive of the game, the CSP special teams came through, putting pressure on the punter to force a short 6-yard punt to give CSP the ball at the 23 yard line.

Two plays later, Hutton found Marcus Gustaveson for a 20-yard touchdown a 13-7 lead early in the second quarter. Concordia added two more scores before halftime in a big second quarter, with Hutton connecting with MJ Williams for a 33-yard TD strike followed by Devin Flakes blocking a punt recovering by Lorenzo Kendricks for a touchdown and a 27-7 halftime lead.

While Hutton put Concordia ahead 34-17 with six minutes left with a nine yard rushing touchdown, it was Lajuan Preston who would bury the Cougars with his seven yard touchdown just just over four minutes to go.

Preston had 80 yards on the ground on 13 carries, averaging 6.2 per carry in the game.

Defensive end Chris Garrett, coming off of a 2018 sophomore season when he led the country in sacks per game, had a strong debut with 1.5 sacks, also adding a hurry, a pass breakup and five tackles.

Concordia out-gained the Cougars 385-315 in the win and also had a 20-yard average field position advantage, with CSP also holding USF to 0-3 fourth down conversions in the game and won the turnover margin 2-0, converting them to 10 points.

LAST WEEK: CONCORDIA 24, UPPER IOWA 6
The Golden Bears made it nine straight home opener victories under head coach Shannon Currier (2000-03, 2016-present) with a 24-6 win over Upper Iowa at Sea Foam Stadium.

Concordia has now won three in a row against UIU, improves to 5-1 against the Peacocks at Sea Foam Stadium and 11-4 in the all-time series.

The Golden Bears also improved to 19-18 at Sea Foam Stadium when scoring at least 20 points and 16-0 when holding opponents under 20 points at their on-campus stadium.

Sophomore linebacker Andrew Egnarski had his breakout performance with career-highs of 11 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, a forced fumble and recovery.

He was the catalyst for a CSP defense that held the Peacocks to 257 yards of total offense at just 3.8 yards per play, including 33-78 on the ground.

Offensively, it was freshman quarterback Conner Cordts with the breakout performance, completing 20-27 for 249 yards and two touchdowns while playing his second straight turnover-free game under center. He connected with nine different receivers, targeting 10 in the game.

Junior safety Rhett Sheehan provided the first spark early in the second quarter, intercepting a UIU pass at the UIU 40 yard line and returning it 30 yards to the 10 to set up the first score of the game, freshman running back Jaylin Richardson's first career touchdown from one yard out.

Richardson finished with 13 carries for 61 yards.

Concordia's three touchdowns were all career firsts, starting with Richardson's. Later in the second quarter, it was Cordts' first career TD pass to redshirt freshman Mason Van Zeeland, his first career TD haul from 25 yards, set up by a 35-yarder between the pair earlier in the drive.

Van Zeeland finished with two catches for 60 yards as CSP went into halftime leading 14-0 at the break.

Freshman kicker Sam Henson converted a 38-yard field goal in the third quarter to push Concordia to a 3-score lead (17-0). On the ensuing drive, Egnarski forced and recovered a fumble as UIU approached the red zone, stopping their first big scoring threat.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Cordts delivered a strike 33 yards downfield over the middle to Jaheim Arnold as the freshman secured his first career TD catch for a 24-0 lead with 7:47 to go.

It wasn't until under three minutes to play when the Peacocks finally found the end zone, snapping the shutout on an 11 yard TD pass from backup QB Marcus Orr to Xavier Saldana.

CSP held UIU's quarterbacks to 8-17 passing each (16-34 total) for 179 yards, with each throwing an interception.

Joining Sheehan with strong performances from the secondary were cornerback Preston Piltoff with seven tackles and a pair of breakups while Lorenzo Kendricks also secured an INT.

The secondary benefited from a strong push from the pass rush as CSP produced five team scacks with Jake Richardson adding a solo sack to Egnarski's 3.5.

Nathan Gimza and Joey Farley tied for the team lead with five receptions each, Gimza going for 59 yards and Farley for 26.