ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (1-0) will play its NSIC opener this Saturday, September 9, heading on the road for the first time this season to face Winona State (0-1) with a 1 p.m. kickoff at Altra Federal Credit Union Stadium.

WEATHER OUTLOOK
Saturday in Winona features a high of 82 with light winds under 5 mph a mix of sunshine and clouds.

WATCH ONLINE
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

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 featured student-athlete interviews are with junior quarterback Conner Cordts and junior safety Cyrus McClure.
 
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!
 
CAPTAINS
CSP head coach Shannon Currier and the Golden Bear coaching staff have continued the program's tradition of selecting rotating weekly game captains for the fifth season in a row. Captains are selected by the coaching staff based on performance on the field and off, as a leader in practice and in day-to-day activities.
 
This week's game captains are junior quarterback Conner Cordts, junior guard Taylon Hensley, junior safety Cyrus McClure and sophomore linebacker Richard Wauer. VIEW COMPLETE 2023 WEEKLY CAPTAINS

SERIES HISTORY: WINONA STATE 19, CSP 4
In the last meeting between the teams, Winona State prevailed 47-6 to open the 2021 season and while Conner Cordts made his first career start under center that evening in Winona, the only other starter from that game who is still with the team is offensive lineman Brody Card. However, other notable current Golden Bears made their debuts that evening in reserve roles: running back Jaylin Richardson, safety Cyrus McClure, cornerback McKinley Egland-Young, linebackers Brayden Hilgemann, Caden Baarts, El-Osiris Jeudy, Max Giannini, kicker Sam Henson, punter Parker Dahlman, offensive linemen Jac Carver, CJ Picazo, Sarek Hoerth and Jake Edwards (Edwards played 4 games in 2019 with SCSU).

The Golden Bears have since developed from the 2021 season opener, with Cordts taking a leading role by playing turnover-free football in his first career start, completing 25-40 for 130 yards while adding 11 carries for 39 yards on the ground, only taking one sack on the night against an aggressive WSU front seven. Richardson also had a strong debut, although he was bottled up on the ground (5-2), he led the team in receptions (7) and receiving yard (69) and added 73 yards via three kickoff returns including a long of 51. Defensively, Cyrus McClure was the standout from 2023 players who debuted that evening, making three solo tackles. Henson made a pair of field goals including a long of 48 yards early in the third quarter while his first make from 38 yards was as time expired in the first half.

But the Warriors did their damage on big plays, scoring five times from 35-plus yards on the night, helping them compile 509 yards of offense including 272 rushing yards while holding CSP to 187 yards of total offense.

In previous two meetings, though, the Golden Bears held firm with the Warriors, falling 24-20 in 2018 in Winona and 20-10 in 2019 in St. Paul, both season finale contests for CSP as WSU has now taken six in a row from the Golden Bears.

The last time Concordia defeated Winona State was in 2014, a 31-28 victory in Winona for CSP's only road win in 10 trips to WSU. It was the second-straight win for CSP, also taking down the Warriors 23-13 in 2013 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

CSP holds a 1-8 record against the Warriors under head coach Shannon Currier, defeating the Warriors 23-20 in overtime at Griffin Stadium in 2003 which helped secure an NSIC Championship during Currier's fourth and final year leading the Golden Bears during his first term with the program. Two years later, with a number of his former players still in key spots on the roster, the Golden Bears picked up another win over WSU in 2005 to lead to a second NSIC title in a three year span in 2005 with a 35-21 win at the Metrodome.

LAST WEEK: CSP 43, UPPER IOWA 20
The Golden Bears dominated in all three phases of the game last Thursday night in a 43-20 non-conference home win over Upper Iowa with Jaylin Richardson leading the team with three touchdowns (2 rush, 1 rec), rushing 16 times for 108 yards and adding 2-34 receiving. Sophomore running back Daniel Hornacek added 10-100 rushing and a score, helping to ice the game in the fourth quarter as CSP rushed for 281 yards on 36 carries, their most as a team since 2019, also against Upper Iowa (48-300) on the road. The two 100-yard rushers was the first time since 2018 in week eight against Minnesota Crookston.

Through the air, junior quarterback Conner Cordts engineered a turnover-free offense, completing 21-30 for 191 yards and a pair of touchdowns, adding 5-42 rushing and another score and was well-protected by an offensive line that didn't allow a sack and paved the way for a ground game that averaged 7.8 yards per carry.

Sophomore wide receiver Troy Ellison was the top target with 10 catches for 85 yards, adding 2-21 rushing and a 58-yard punt return for 164 all-purpose yards on 13 touches. He was one of nine players targeted in the pass game, with Cordts connecting with eight different players.

While CSP's offense was turnover-free, the defense was opportunistic in creating a pair of turnovers, both by safeties Cyrus McClure and Anthony Ukofia. The duo teamed up on a first quarter fumble that set-up CSP's first touchdown with a short field, with McClure forcing the ball loose on UIU's first play from scrimmage and Ukofia recovering. In the fourth quarter with UIU attempting to trim CSP's 16-point lead, McClure tipped a pass in coverage over the middle that Ukofia intercepted in the red zone.

While the starting safeties created the turnovers, they also contributed to a pass defense that limited UIU to 9-22 passing for 92 yards in the second half as the Golden Bear defense held the Peacocks to 73 rushing yards and  291 yards of total offense compared to CSP's 472. The defense also held UIU to 1-12 on third downs and CSP dominated time of possession 34:02 to 25:58.

On special teams, in addition to Ellison's 58-yard punt return, the Golden Bears had a pair of blocks with Carter Otto blocking a punt and Koffi Gbekle blocking a PAT. Parker Dahlman held a 40.5 average per punt with a long of 48 and two-time All-NSIC transfer kicker Payton Eue scored seven points including a 26-yard field goal while adding three touchbacks on eight kickoffs.

The win improves Concordia to 10-1 in home openers all-time under head coach Shannon Currier (2000-03 & 2016-pres.), and 10-3 at Sea Foam Stadium when scoring 30-plus points (2009-present). CSP is now 8-1 at home against UIU and 12-4 in the all-time series against the Peacocks in the first non-conference meeting between the programs.

ABOUT THE WARRIORS
Winona State enters the 2023 season picked sixth in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 103 points and at the back-end of a crowded top-six at the top of the league's preseason predictions. From there, it's a 28-point gap to a seventh-place tie (Northern State & Sioux Falls).

Last year, the Warriors were tied for first with Minnesota State in the NSIC South Division with a 5-1 record in division play and finished 8-3 in the NSIC overall, just a game out of a three-way tie for first between Bemidji State, Minnesota State and Wayne State, and tied with UMD and USF for third. The Warriors secured a spot in the NCAA playoffs, falling 31-7 at Bemidji State in the first round.

The Warriors opened 2023 on the road, falling 34-24 in a non-conference game at Saginaw Valley State (Mich.). It was a slow start for the Warriors, who fell behind 27-0 late in the second quarter. But WSU rallied before the half, taking a 9-play, 72-yard drive spanning 2:44 as Cole Stenstrom found Kaleb Skelly for an 8-yard touchdown with one second to play in the first half to give WSU some life.

They followed it up by starting the second half strong, with Myles Hawthorne intercepting a pass on the second play of SVSU's opening drive of the quarter at the 37-yard line, setting up a short field and a 4-play scoring drive capped off by a 22-yard TD strike to make it a 2-score game with nearly the entire second half to play.

SVSU answered with a 47-yard TD run on the ensuing drive, however, and although WSU would hold SVSU from scoring the rest of the way, the 20-point deficit was too much to overcome. WSU kicker Jacob Scott converted from 45 yards out in the third quarter, and Stenstrom found Dakota Matthees for a 2-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to trim the margin back to 10, 24-14 with 13 minutes to play, but the Warriors couldn't complete the comeback.

Stenstrom was credited with 16-37 passing for 160 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions through the air. The Warriors couldn't get the ground game going, though, as Noah Carlson led the team with 24 rushing yards on eight carries as WSU rushed 32 times for 57 yards as a team.

SVSU racked up 406 rushing yards on 56 attempts and three touchdowns.

Clay Schueffner led a busy WSU run defense with 14 tackles including 1.0 TFL and Aarion Lacy also had an INT along with Hawthorne.