MARSHALL, Minn. – Concordia-St. Paul (0-2) dropped a grueling 14-6 road game at Southwest Minnesota State (1-1) on Saturday evening at the Schwan Regional Event Center. SMSU snapped a 12-game home losing streak in tonight's game played in front of 2,788 spectators.
 
Concordia returns home next Saturday for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff against Sioux Falls for Military Appreciation Day at Sea Foam Stadium.
 
The Golden Bear ground game was out in full force, as the team rushed for 262 yards on 38 rushing attempts to produce the team's first 200-yard run game since November 9, 2019 at SMSU in the squad's last trip to Marshall.
 
The ground attack was led by sophomore Jaylin Richardson's career day, producing his first career 100-yard performance, carrying 14 times for 175 yards. It's the most rushing yards in a game since Shaq Johnson rushed for 175 yards against Southwest Minnesota State on November 11, 2017.
 
But the Mustangs countered with a big day on the ground, as well, rushing 43 times for 274 yards led by the career-best performance by Jesse Sherwood, who ran for 196 yards on 32 carries and added three receptions for 29 yards.
 
Concordia finished the game out-gaining the Mustangs overall 432-380 in total offense but the 8-point final margin included three turnovers and two missed field goals by Concordia while SMSU had two turnovers and one missed field goal.
 
The Golden Bears opened the game with a defensive stop, getting strong field position at the 38-yard line after SMSU's opening drive punt. A big third-down conversion from sophomore quarterback Conner Cordts to sophomore wide receiver Jack Munsterteiger for 25 yards put CSP in scoring position at the SMSU 33-yard line.
 
But a fumble ended the threat, turning the ball over to the Mustangs, and two plays later, Sherwood dashed 63 yards to the end zone for the only touchdown of the first half.
 
Concordia held firm to its game plan, which included leaning on the secondary's exceptional start to the season, holding SMSU to 1-of-5 passing for 12 yards through the first 20 minutes of play into the second quarter including sophomore safety Cyrus McClure making his third interception of the season midway through the first quarter.
 
The McClure interception allowed the Golden Bear offense to stick to its game plan as well, marching 60 yards on 12 plays, setting up a 24-yard field goal by Sam Henson with 1:44 to play in the opening quarter. CSP converted a 4^th-and-4 from the SMSU 26 with Cordts finding redshirt freshman tight end Jacob Cannon for 11 yards, the first down and into the red zone.
 
McClure continued his impact in the second quarter, with under five and a half minutes to play, he made a big open field tackle on third down to halt an SMSU drive that was approaching midfield, helping to send CSP into the locker room only down by four points.
 
In the first half, CSP had 39 plays for 205 yards while limiting SMSU to 24 plays for 159 yards, leading to a 12-6 edge in first downs and 17:50 to 12:10 in time of possession. CSP held the Mustangs to just 4-8 passing with an interception in the first half for 33 yards while Cordts targeted eight different options, completing passes to seven of them as he was 12-19 for 123 yards.
 
Concordia also established the run in the first half, with 20 rushing attempts for 82 yards led by Richardson (6-31), Jaire Moore (7-28) and Gayflor Flomo (5-25). But the Mustangs' 63-yard touchdown and Sherwood's 14-104 rushing in the first half gave the Mustangs its only statistical edge in the half, which impacted the scoreboard in SMSU's favor at the break, as well.
 
Although it was a scoreless third quarter, Richardson broke free late in the quarter for a 31-yard run into the SMSU red zone, topping the 100-yard mark in the process. Concordia capped the drive with 12:58 to play in the fourth quarter with Henson's second field goal, a 22-yarder to make it a 7-6 lead for SMSU.
 
Despite Concordia continuously chipping away at the Mustang defense all evening, SMSU was able to create additional distance when Eric Lira broke free for a 52-yard touchdown run, the second 50-plus yard touchdown of the day for SMSU and a 14-6 lead with 10:35 remaining.
 
After CSP's third fumble deep in its own territory, sophomore Marshall-native Brayden Hilgemann came up with a big play, intercepting the Mustangs inside the 5-yard line, stopping a threat that nearly made it a three-score deficit.
 
On the next play, Richardson broke loose for a 74-yard run to the SMSU 23 as CSP surpassed 200 rushing yards on the run. But the drive came up empty on a missed 50-yard field goal with 6:23 left in the contest.
 
From there, the ground game for SMSU nearly put the game on ice with Sherwood converting a 3^rd-and-1 and a 3^rd-and-6, pushing SMSU deep into the red zone with under two minutes to play.
 
The Golden Bear defense held in the closing seconds, limiting the Mustangs to a 6-yard run on 4^th-and-goal from the seven-yard line, giving Concordia four seconds to go 99 yards.
 
On the game's final play, Cordts connected with Drew Enke 13 yards down the field, but when the Golden Bears attempted to use a series of laterals to reach paydirt, Joey Farley's knee grazed the turf to end the contest.
 
While Richardson's 14-175 led the team, the contributions from Jaire Moore (11-41) and Gayflor Flomo (7-36) also played a key role in the rushing attack, with Moore also collecting a 26-yard reception and Richardson adding two catches for seven yards.
 
Cordts continued his trend of sharing the football through the passing game, completing 17-28 for 170 yards. He targeted nine options in the passing game: six wide receivers, two running backs and a tight end. He connected with eight different targets and found six of them at least twice.
 
Enke (3-36), Farley (3-22) and Evan Peterson (3-20) each led the team with three receptions.
 
The Golden Bears held SMSU quarterback Justus McComb to 8-17 passing with two interceptions and 106 passing yards.
 
Senior Rhett Sheehan paced the defense with 10 tackles including seven solo and one for loss (21 yards) while senior defensive end Luke Dunsmoor had a career-high nine tackles. Hilgemann had seven tackles to go with his fourth-quarter interception and McClure had five tackles to go with his INT.
 
Making his first start at linebacker, Jawon Carr had a six tackle performance.
 
On special teams, all three of sophomore Parker Dahlman's punts were pinned inside the 20, averaging 41.0 yards with a long of 45 on a consistent performance for the punter.