ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Golden Bear football program (0-10 NSIC, 0-5 North) will turn the page on the 2022 season this Saturday with a noon kickoff against Minot State (1-9 NSIC, 1-4 North) for senior day at Sea Foam Stadium.

SENIOR DAY
The program will honor its graduating seniors prior to kickoff, fans should be sure to arrive at least 15 minutes early to bid the seniors farewell. Concordia currently features 13 players either listed as seniors (8) or graduating with one or more seasons of eligibility remaining as the missed season due to COVID-19 has changed how student-athletes navigate their college playing careers in all sports. To the 13 seniors being honored on senior day, along with any others who opt to graduate between now and the 2023 season, CSP athletics and CSP football thanks you for your contributions to the program.

WEATHER OUTLOOK: BUNDLE UP
Kickoff on Saturday at noon features a temperature of 29 degrees and a NNW wind at 10mph and temperatures only expected to top out at 30 degrees in the afternoon with mostly cloudy skies.

WATCH ONLINE – NSIC NETWORK
All Golden Bear NSIC football games will be available to watch online, free of charge, powered by the NSIC Network, and 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.
 
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.

LISTEN TO THE COACHES SHOW
The Coaches Show with Shannon Currier is back on the Twin Cities airwaves for a fourth season, 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 student-athlete feature interviews are sophomore quarterback Conner Cordts and redshirt freshman defensive end Drake Teal.

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!

SERIES HISTORY: CONCORDIA 6, MINOT STATE 3
The Golden Bears and Beavers will meet for the 10th time in a series that began in the final year CSP played at Griffin Stadium in 2008, with CSP welcoming Minot State to St. Paul with a 55-13 win against the former NAIA program.

The teams met annually for four years in non-conference play, with CSP picking up wins in three of the four non-league games.

The teams had their first NSIC matchup in 2013, a 29-0 shutout win by CSP at Sea Foam Stadium, winning the first three NSIC games in the series.

The series opened with Concordia winning six of the first seven games and included a five-game CSP winning streak from 2010 to 2017.

The Beavers finally snapped the streak in 2019, a 38-31 win in Minot and followed it up by with a 28-20 win in Minot last season in CSP's first season as NSIC North Division members.

The series is heavily tilted towards the home squad, with CSP holding a 4-0 lead in St. Paul (3-0 at Sea Foam Stadium) and Minot State holding a 3-2 edge in games played in Minot.

Concordia has shutout the Beavers in their most recent two trips to Sea Foam Stadium, 29-0 in 2013 and 24-0 in 2017, with Minot's last points scored at Sea Foam Stadium happening over a decade ago with a field goal at the 8:22 mark of the third quarter on September 4, 2010 in CSP's 38-17 win in the season opener.

Head coach Shannon Currier holds a 1-2 record against Minot State and is 1-0 against the Beavers at Sea Foam Stadium.

LAST MEETING, 2021: MINOT STATE 28, CONCORDIA 20
Playing in his final game as a Golden Bear, running back Lajuan Preston rushed for a career-high 143 yards on a cold, snowy and windy afternoon at Herb Parker Stadium.

He had missed the previous five games due to injury, but returned to the field to notch CSP's first 100-yard performance of the season. He secured his 143 yards on 23 carries with a long of 33 and finished his career with 221 carries for 1,266 yards and a 5.7 career average per carry.

CSP rushed for a season-high 178 yards on 33 attempts, averaging 5.4 as a team on a day when working the ground was vital.

But the Beavers also used the ground game as Ali Mohamed carried the day by winning the league's rushing title, picking up 125 yards on 34 carries as Minot State compiled 242 team rushing yards on 54 attempts.

On a tough kicking day, Sam Henson finished off an impressive freshman season by converting a 25-yard field goal in the first quarter to make it 7-3 Minot State, and hit a 45-yard field goal late in the first half to bring CSP within a 1-score game, trailing 21-13. He finished the year 10-13 on field goals.

CSP also picked up a long touchdown by Evan Peterson as the wide receiver scored on a 59-yard run.

In the second half, quarterback Abe Schwartz, who was playing in his final game, returned from missing the previous two games due to injury and 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 to open the second half, cutting the score to 21-20.

On the drive, Preston carried the ball on the first four plays including a 33-yard run into Minot State territory, while Schwartz hit Mason Van Zeeland on a 3rd-and-7 for 19 yards to the Beaver 20 yard line. The drive was capped by a Schwartz TD strike to Jaheim Arnold from 10-yards out.

But despite so much time remaining in the game, CSP only had three more possessions on the day, managing only one more first down in the contest.

The pivotal moment was Minot State's long, plotting fourth quarter drive. Leading 21-20, 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 put together 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 3rd-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 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.

The defensive effort was led by 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.

LAST WEEK: MSU MOORHEAD 21, CONCORDIA 20
The Golden Bears came up a point short in their final road game of the 2022 season, their first 1-point loss since a 21-20 loss at Augustana in the 2019 season during a year when CSP also had a 1-point overtime win over Bemidji State.

The Golden Bears registered a season-high eight sacks on defense, adding 11.0 tackles for loss with the defensive line accounting for all eight sacks and nine of the TFLs.

Redshirt freshman Javon Jones had 3.5 sacks while Koffi Gbekle had 2.0 sacks.

Behind the line, junior linebacker Andrew Egnarski made it five-straight games with 10-plus tackles with 11 stops and a fumble recovery in the contest, giving him 87 on the year through eight games played.

Offensively, CSP used a 140-102 rushing advantage and compiled 400 yards of total offense behind sophomore quarterback Conner Cordts, who put up 310 yards of total offense on 260 passing and 50 rushing yards.

Cordts passed for one TD and added a score on the ground.

The ground game was led by junior Gayflor Flomo with 17 carries for 78 yards and wasn't tackled for loss in the game.

Cordts once again looked to a diverse group of targets, targeting eight receivers in the pass game, but it was redshirt freshman Troy Ellison who had seven catches on 11 targets for 104 yards, the first 100-yard receiving game since Jake Tanner in the 2019 season finale.

Ellison was versatile once again, compiling a career-high 158 all-purpose yards, adding 11 rushing and 43 kick return yards.

He scored his third touchdown of the season, tying CSP's longest play of the year on a 75-yard scoring strike from Cordts.

On the game's final drive, Cordts completing 5-of-6 for 52 yards including a 23-yard connection with Nathan Gimza to push the ball near midfield. He added a 4th-and-4 15-yard completion to Jack Munsterteiger to get to the MSUM 31-yard line, and picked up 18 rushing yards on the 11-play, 71-yard drive to the Dragon 8-yard line, coming up empty in the red zone with a missed field goal with four seconds to play.

Jack Strand led the Dragon offense by completing 23-of-41 for 292 yards and three touchdowns despite taking eight sacks. He connected with Gage Florence six times for 61 yards, both well under his season averages which put him among the nation's top wide receivers. Luke Imdieke rolled up 98 rushing yards on 15 carries while Hayden Boll had 13-45 on the ground for the Dragons.

NOTES ABOUT THE BEAVERS
The Beavers snapped a 9-game losing streak with their 17-10 week 10 win over UMary in their home finale. On the season, Minot State has scored 20-plus points twice, falling 27-20 in overtime at SMSU in week four and 33-22 at Upper Iowa in week eight.

Further, Minot State has held teams under 30 points just three times, a 24-10 loss to Winona State in the opener, the 27-20 OT loss to SMSU and the week 10 win (17-10) over UMary.

They are the least penalized team in the nation, being flagged 3.3 times per game for just 33 yards. They've also only lost four fumbles, second-best in the NSIC and 15th in the nation, while their 11 interceptions rank foruth in the NSIC and have helped them produced the league's third-best turnover margin and the fourth-fewest turnovers committed in the NSIC.

The offense runs through running back Ali Mohamed with 558 yards and five touchdowns while adding 15-106 with a score through the air.

Three receiving targets: Peyton Lamoureux (27-369, TD), Nathan Young (33-347, TD) and Erik Palmquist (33-322, 3 TD) have cleared 300 yards apiece.

Dawson Macleary has passed for 1,529 yards, five TDs and 10 INTs on 53% (149-281) passing.

The defense leader is Carson Cayko with 71 tackles, 7.5 TFLs, 2.0 sacks and one INT while Isaiah Bigby adds 56 tackles, 5.5 TFLs and a pair of INTs.

The Beavers have secured 11 interceptions as a defense led by Knylen Miller-Levi's four picks, adding 38 tackles and 2.5 TFLs. He ranks third in the NSIC and 21st in the nation in INTs.

Minot State's special teams is powered by punter Justin Cash with a 40.7 average, ranking second in the NSIC and 24th nationally, but the team holds a 33.2 net punting average, seventh in the league and 91st in the country.