ST. PAUL, Minn. - This Saturday, September 11 at noon, Concordia-St. Paul (0-1 NSIC) will host its first home football game since November 16, 2019 when Upper Iowa (0-1 NSIC) comes to Sea Foam Stadium. Each team is looking to avenge an opening week loss.

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.

The first two home games 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.

SERIES HISTORY: CSP 10, Upper Iowa 4
Concordia and Upper Iowa enter the 15th meeting in the all-time series dating back to 2006, when Upper Iowa joined the Northern Sun. The Golden Bears have captured wins in the last two meetings, which snapped a three game skid to the Peacocks between 2015 and 2017.

Concordia is 6-1 against Upper Iowa in seven meetings at home, and have won in five of the six meetings held at Sea Foam Stadium, which opened in 2009. The Golden Bears welcomed the Peacocks to NSIC action by winning the first seven meetings in the series between 2006 and 2012.

LAST MEETING: CSP 28, Upper Iowa 23 (2019)
The Golden Bears got off to a 2-0 start to the 2019 season following a 28-23 win over Upper Iowa behind 300 team rushing yards for the first time since 2014 and snapped a 10-game road losing streak dating back to 2014.

Four different Golden Bears scored on the ground in the win: Lajuan Preston, Shaq Johnson, Darios Crawley-Reid and Cole Kirchoff. Preston, the only returner of that group, rushed for 72 yards on 12 carries while Johnson led the way with 12 carries for 118 yards and added a 36 yard reception.

Quarterback Maxon Hutton managed the victory, needing only 16 tosses whle adding nine rushes for 68 yards as the team's third leading rusher in the game. He completed 8-of-16 for 94 yards with his top target Jabril Clewis with three catches for 35 yards.

Defensively, Jake Portz set a career-high with 18 tackles including a tackle for loss. Defensive ends Kelly Pierce and Chris Garrett added pressure up front, with Pierce registering eight tackles and a tackle for loss while Garrett had six tackles and 1.5 sacks.

For Upper Iowa, it was Jake Schuman to Alexander Stevens accounting for all three touchdowns. Schuman completed 27-for-44 for 239 yards while Stevens had seven catches for 81 yards and three touchdowns. Matt McDonald led UIU's run game with 24 carries for 89 yards.

Concordia built a 28-10 lead midway through the third quarter on Preston's 17-yard touchdown run, and held off the late Peacock comeback attempt.

LAST TIME OUT: CSP FALLS AT WINONA STATE
Concordia-St. Paul returned to the gridiron for the first time since 2019, playing the same opponent. CSP dropped its 2019 finale 20-10 at home to Winona State, and would fall to the Warriors again last Thursday night in Winona, 47-6.

Armed with nearly all new offensive and defensive linemen, as well as a mostly new array of skill position players on offense, the Golden Bears were unable to keep up with the Warriors, who were coming off back-to-back 8-win seasons in 2018 and 2019, while CSP is coming off its first winning season (6-5) since 2011.

Freshman quarterback Conner Cordts was solid in his debut against a strong defense, completing 25-of-40 for 130 yards while adding a team-high 39 yards on the ground on 11 attempts. He played turnover-free football and only took one sack while producing a long throw of 38 yards and a long run of 20.

His top targets were running backs Jaylin Richardson (7-69) and Brian Lankford-Johnson (4-23), who had long catches of 38 and 21 yards, respectively. The DI transfer duo also carried the ball a combined 13 times for 16 yards and led the team in all-purpose yards. Richardson finished with 144 yards between rushing (2), receiving (69) and kickoff returns (73) while Lankford-Johnson had 57 yards between rushing (14), receiving (23) and kickoff returns (20).

Nathan Gimza led the receiving corps with four catches for 13 yards while Kevin Ventura-Cortes added two catches for 10 yards from the tight end position.

Defensively, Dalton Smerchek produced seven tackles, all solo stops in the first half, and a tackle for loss. Alex Andrade added four tackles including 2.0 for loss.

The Warriors doubled-up Concordia in first downs (18-9), held a 272 to 57 advantage in the run game and 237 to 130 yard advantage through the air for a 509 to 187 margin in total offense.

The Golden Bear special teams unit, freshman kicker Sam Henson and freshman punter Parker Dahlman, had solid debuts. Henson connected on field goals of 38 yards at the end of the first half and 48 yards midway through the third quarter while Dahlman punted seven times for a 37.7 average with a long of 46 yards and one inside the 20.

ABOUT THE PEACOCKS
Upper Iowa entered the 2021 season picked seventh in the seven team NSIC South Division and 14th overall in the 14 team NSIC, coming off of a 2-9 overall record in 2019 that included an 0-7 mark in the NSIC South Division.

The Peacocks dropped their 2021 season opener at home to NSIC North favorite Minnesota Duluth 41-14, falling behind 20-0 early in the second quarter and 34-7 at the half.

Willy Camacho led Upper Iowa with 101 rushing yards on 16 carries, averaging 6.3 per carrie while Keontae Luckett produced 25 yards on three rushes for a Peacock squad that rushed for 134 yards on 30 attempts (4.5 avg) against the Bulldogs.

Quarterback TJ Smith accounted for both touchdowns, one throwing and one rushing. He went 4-for-17 through the air, but connected for big plays totaling 170 yards on the four completions with a long of 59, hitting three plays of 50-plus yards including a 54-yard touchdown to DJ Emsweller while Lane Canny (59) and Ryan Pritchard (54) also made big plays through the air. Smith also had eight rushing yards on 11 attempts including his five yard fourth quarter touchdown run. He was intercepted twice and sacked six times by the Bulldog defense.

Four different Peacocks had at least 1.5 tackles for loss led by Erik Hanson with three tackles for loss and a pair of sacks among his five total tackles. Brody Bazile and Charlie Caruso each made six tackles with two tackles for loss, with Bazile also adding a fumble recovery and a pass breakup.

UMD produced 530 yards of total offense and 25 first downs against UIU's 304 yards and 12 first downs, and the Bulldogs put up 447 passing yards on 22-of-33 passing in the game with six touchdowns through the air. Upper Iowa slowed the UMD run game to 2.5 per carry, as the Bulldogs rushed 33 times for 83 yards.