ST. PAUL, Minn. – Concordia-St. Paul (0-5) and Minnesota State (4-1) were locked in a low-scoring 7-7 contest late in the third quarter when the visiting Mavericks spoiled Concordia's homecoming at Sea Foam Stadium with 18-straight points as CSP fell 25-15.
 
Concordia has wrapped up NSIC North-South cross-divisional play and will open NSIC North Division play next Saturday at 2 p.m. at Bemidji State with a clean slate in the division standings. The Golden Bears' slate of opponents has now compiled a 21-4 record, featuring one 5-0 team (Sioux Falls) and four 4-1 squads (Augustana, SMSU, Wayne State, Minnesota State). Next week's opponent also features a winning record as the Beavers are 3-2 overall (1-0 NSIC North).
 
The Golden Bears tied the game early in the third quarter when junior running back Jaire Moore found a hole on the left side, rushing 32 yards for the touchdown five and a half minutes into the second half.
 
But Minnesota State countered by finding the end zone with 3:03 to play in the third, ripping off a string of 18 points in a span of under 10 and a half minutes of game time, taking a 25-7 lead on a touchdown with 6:48 to play in the game.
 
The Golden Bears added a late 3-yard touchdown pass between sophomores as Conner Cordts found Jaylin Richardson out of the backfield for a short 3-yard score.
 
Richardson finished the game with 81 rushing yards on 18 carries, adding 3-7 receiving with a score. Moore rushed for 58 yards on six carries while Cordts supplemented the backfield by rushing for 45 yards on nine attempts. Cordts also completed 21-45 for 178 yards, was not intercepted and was only sacked once.
 
Concordia finished the day with 189 rushing yards, averaging 5.6 yards per carry on 34 team attempts. CSP was up to 169 rushing yards after the Moore touchdown early in the third quarter before MSU clamped down defensively in the final 25 minutes.
 
The game was scoreless well past the midway point of the second quarter in what appeared to be a low scoring contest well into the second half. MSU finally broke the tie on its third possession with a 5:25 drive spanning nine plays and 82 yards.
 
The Mavericks' ability to punch the ball into the end zone from seven yards out at that point in the contest would be the difference in the final outcome, as MSU scored on all four of its trips to the red zone with three touchdowns and a field goal while SP was 1-of-3 with the late fourth quarter touchdown its only points.
 
MSU's first touchdown came in between a pair of blocked field goals by the Mavericks' special teams standout Trey Vaval, with both coming in the red zone on attempts of 29 and 25 yards – the first two misses of Sam Henson's career from inside of 40 yards, hitting 10-straight in 2021 and the start of 2022.
 
The blocks on back-to-back drives were costly in a first half that had CSP double-up MSU with 14-7 in first downs and control time of possession to an 18:17-11:43 while controlling the clock for over nine minutes of each of the first two quarters.
 
Vaval was a focal point of CSP's gameplan, ranked second in the country with a 25.7 punt return average and 11^th in the nation with 343 combined kick return yards.
 
The Golden Bears executed their special teams gameplan to slow the Mavericks' return game, holding MSU to just 45 total return yards as Vaval was 1-12 on punt returns, 1-26 on kickoff returns and teammate Nyles Williams was tackled after a 7-yard kickoff return inside the 10-yard line.
 
Sophomore punter Parker Dahlman and Conner Cordts combined to average 40.5 yards on four punts with a team net average 37.5 and two punts inside the 20.
 
Concordia also out-gained MSU in return yardage with 87 yards on three kickoff returns including a long of 33 from Richardson, who had 121 all-purpose yards on the day to lead all players in the game.
 
The final line had Concordia with a 23-17 advantage in first downs and a slight 367-359 edge in total offense. The Golden Bear secondary held MSU to 165 passing yards on 13-25 passing with cornerbacks Zantavious Graham and McKinley Egland-Young each coming up with pass breakups and Lucas Becker producing a sack among the team's five QB hurries.
 
Richard Wauer led the defense with a career-high 10 tackles, adding a half tackle for loss while safeties Rhett Sheehan and Cyrus McClure had six and five tackles, respectively.
 
Among the offense's 46 passing attempts, 12 different players were targeted while slot receivers Jack Munsterteiger and Joey Farley each had a team-high five receptions, with Munsterteiger leading the team with 48 receiving yards followed by Farley's 35.
 
Minnesota State was led by quarterback Camden Dean, who completed 7-16 for 100 yards and two passing touchdowns while adding 14-63 and a touchdown on the ground.