ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (2-8, 2-7 NSIC) dropped a 35-7 contest to Minnesota Duluth (6-4, 5-4 NSIC) on a cool, fall Saturday afternoon at Sea Foam Stadium. Prior to the game, CSP honored its 28-player senior and graduating class.

Concordia will close out the season next Saturday on the road at Wayne State (6-4, 5-4 NSIC) with a noon kickoff in Wayne, Nebraska.

Today, the Golden Bear defense had a strong start against a UMD club ranked 14th in the country with a league-leading 440.0 yards per game of total offense, and the nation's 22nd-ranked and league-best scoring offense (34.7 points per game). The Golden Bears stopped the Bulldogs on downs in CSP territory on the opening drive of the game, and forced a punt near midfield on UMD's second possession.

On Minnesota Duluth's third and fourth possessions, the Golden Bears became opportunistic, intercepting the reigning D2Football.com National Offensive Player of the Week Kyle Walljasper in the red zone. On 3rd-and-goal from the CSP 6-yard line, Walljasper was forced from the pocket and hit by senior linebacker Brayden Hilgemann, with senior defensive tackle McKinley Neville applying pressure from the front. With Walljasper going down, he flipped the pass to a target at the 3-yard line when sophomore safety Machai Campbell stepped in and picked it off, halting UMD's scoring threat in a scoreless tie.

Although Concordia's offense was stopped on the ensuing possession, on the next defensive play, Walljasper found an opening for a 12-yard keeper up the middle but was hit by sophomore defensive back Safdar McCrary, knocking the ball loose for sophomore safety Ricky Dixon to recover in CSP territory at the 28-yard line.

The Golden Bear defense held UMD scoreless throughout much of the first half including back-to-back Bulldog turnovers.

But the CSP offense wasn't able to get rolling, either, with just one first down on its first five possessions and only two in the first half - one in each quarter.

After senior Parker Dahlman's fourth punt of the following UMD's second turnover, the Bulldogs finally broke through. Four plays later, Walljasper took a shot deep down the middle, finding DeShaun Ames in stride for a 55-yard touchdown with just under four minutes to play in the half.

A quick stop by UMD allowed the Bulldogs another shot, with the drive's biggest play a 4th-and-2 conversion for a 14-yard pass to the CSP 11-yard line, setting up another Walljasper-to-Ames touchdown strike and a 14-0 UMD lead.

Concordia would get a break before half, though, as Dixon returned the kickoff 21 yards to the CSP 33-yard line with 16 seconds to play. A 15-yard personal foul on UMD put the Golden Bears near midfield to start the drive, and a third down conversion with Jackson Compton connecting with Drew Enke on the sideline gave Concordia one more play with two seconds to go at the 40-yard line. Sophomore quarterback Reed Styer relieved Compton, who didn't start today as senior Conner Cordts earned the nod for his CSP career on senior day.

Styer tossed a well-placed Hail Mary attempt to the end zone, but the Golden Bears couldn't come down with it in traffic.

In the third quarter, Walljasper and Ames went back to work, connecting for a third touchdown and a 21-0 lead. Walljasper and Ames broke the scoreless tie in a big way, with three touchdowns in approximately eight minutes of game clock.

This time, Concordia answered, however, embarking on an 11-play, 70-yard scoring drive that established its style of football in six and a half minutes. On the drive, senior running back Jaylin Richardson carried five times for 33 yards including a 15-yard gain on 4th-and-1 from CSP's own 39-yard line, and a 12-yard touchdown run to seal the drive.

Richardson kept his streak of 70-plus scrimmage yards intact on the day, rushing 14 times for 67 yards and adding two catches for 11 yards to lead CSP with 78 combined yards. He's scored a touchdown in six-straight games and has 14 total touchdowns (13 rushing) on the year.

Facing a 21-7 deficit, the CSP defense put UMD in a 3rd-and-2 looking for a 3-and-out on the next possession, but Walljasper kept it himself, finding 34 yards around the left sideline nearing the end of the third quarter. With UMD still driving into the red zone inside the 10-yard line, Walljasper's 1st-and-goal pass was deflected by junior defensive end Drake Teal near the line of scrimmage, with Teal able to corral the bobble for the interception - the team's third forced turnover of the day.

But the UMD defense held firm, forcing another CSP punt. From there, the Bulldogs scored two more fourth quarter touchdowns to put the game away.

In the final tally, UMD held a 27-10 edge in first downs and 492-149 in total offense. The Bulldogs were 11-15 on third down compared to CSP's 4-13, although the Golden Bears picked up both of their fourth down attempts while UMD was 1-2. Concordia turned its only trip to the red zone into seven points while UMD came up empty twice in five trips to the red zone. And despite CSP forcing three turnovers, the Golden Bears couldn't capitalize and were outscored 14-0 in points off turnovers.

Walljasper finished the day 20-26 for 219 yards and three touchdowns - all to Ames who had six catches for 98 yards. Walljasper was also sacked twice, intercepted twice, and lost a fumble despite rushing 15 times for 99 yards.

Concordia had four different players under center in the contest, with three of them attempting at least one pass, as Richardson ran from the wildcat multiples, as well. Compton finished 6-12 for 34 yards and Styer was 7-12 for 41 yards. Junior wide receiver Troy Ellison was second on the team with 67 all-purpose yards, carrying three times for 18 yards, adding six catches for 22 yards, and a pair of kickoff returns for 27 yards.

Defensively, senior safety Anthony Ukofia led the team with 11 tackles including eight solo stops while graduating junior linebacker Caden Baarts had seven tackles.

Dahlman had his second-straight busy week, punting six times for a 43.2 yard average with a long of 56 yards with CSP producing a strong 42.2 net average on his punts with three fair catches and only one attempted return for six yards.