ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul fell to 0-3 on the season, dropping a 44-23 home contest to Sioux Falls (3-0) on Saturday night at Sea Foam Stadium.

The Golden Bears faced the second-ranked run defense in the country as the Cougars were limiting opposing backfields to -11 rushing yards per game entering play, as well as the third-ranked total defense, issuing 149.0 total offense per game.

Concordia was able to produce offensively against the powerful USF defense, rushing for 105 yards at 4.6 per carry while passing for 306 yards, averaging 17.0 yards per completion for a 411 night of total offense, the second-straight game with 400-plus yards of total offense.

But the Cougars mounted 250 yards on the ground and 268 through the air, producing 518 yards of total offense while averaging 8.0 yards per play on the evening.

Sophomore quarterback Conner Cordts led Concordia's offense with his first career 300-yard passing game with 306 yards (18-46) with three touchdowns while adding career-highs of 59 rushing yards and 365 yards of total offense. He was sacked just one time by a defense that ranked second in the country with 6.5 sacks per game entering play.

He tossed touchdown passes from 32, 75 and 64 yards with the receivers accumulating 186 yards after catch among his 306 passing yards in the contest.

Concordia fell behind 20-0 early with USF relying on its running game early, producing a 15-play, 80-yard drive that drained 7:45 off the clock to open play. Concordia held the Cougars scoreless into the second quarter when USF struck quickly on its next two scoring drives, which totaled five plays and 154 yards and 2:01 of play between them.

The Golden Bears rallied, picking up a 25-yard field goal from Sam Henson late in the first half and scoring on their opening drive of the second half on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Conner Cordts to freshman Troy Ellison, cutting the margin to 20-10 early in the third quarter as CSP scored on its final possession of the first half and first possession of the second half to build momentum.

While the Cougars answered quickly, moving 74 yards in six plays for another touchdown and a 27-10 lead, Cordts struck again, this time hitting senior receiver Joey Farley over the middle, with Farley doing most of the work from there on a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the ensuing drive as CSP trailed 27-16 with 10:18 to play in the third.

The Golden Bears couldn't keep pace from there, as the Cougars answered with a field goal and then scored on a 1-play drive with 6:00 to play in the third from 56-yards out to push the margin back to three touchdowns, 37-16.

Cordts completed his 18 passes to 10 different targets and targeted 11 players in the game, a new season-high. Farley led the team with three catches for 81 yards while Jaire Moore had 64 receiving yards on his lone touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. Ellison made his debut with 48 receiving yards on two catches and his score.

While Cordts led the ground game with 59 yards on eight carries including a long of 35, Jaylin Richardson added 9-34 rushing and Gayflor Flomo had 4-13.

The Cougars were led by quarterback Adam Mullen, completing 15-22 for 268 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions against a CSP pass defense that entered play ranked seventh nationally in both passing yards allowed (84.0) and interceptions (4).

Ethan Wittenburg had 5-128 receiving with a touchdown while Thuro Reisdorfer had 19-159 rushing and two touchdowns, adding 3-32 receiving.

The Golden Bears were 8-18 on third down against a defense that ranked 15th in the country in opponent third down percentage (24.1) entering play while holding the Cougars to 6-14 on third despite USF converting 58.3 percent (6th NCAA) heading into the game.

The Concordia defense was led by safeties Cyrus McClure and Rhett Sheehan with nine tackles each while linebacker Brayden Hilgemann continued his strong start with seven.

Concordia returns to the road next Saturday with a night game at Wayne State (3-0) for a 6 p.m. kickoff in Wayne, Nebraska. The early season slate continues to be a challenge as CSP's combined opponent record heading into week four is 11-1, including all three 3-0 teams (Augustana, Sioux Falls, Wayne State) along with SMSU (2-1).