ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (0-2, 0-1 NSIC) dropped its home opener 31-14 to Winona State (1-1, 1-0 NSIC) on Saturday night at Sea Foam Stadium.

Senior running back Jaylin Richardson rushed for 131 yards on 6.6 per carry behind an offensive line that paved the way for 211 team rushing yards and a 6.4 team average on 33 rushing attempts.

It's only Concordia's second loss in home openers under head coach Shannon Currier, whose Golden Bears hold a 10-2 record in home openers under his direction.

Concordia returns to the road next Saturday at Southwest Minnesota State (0-2, 0-2 NSIC) for a 1 p.m. kickoff in Marshall, Minnesota.

The Golden Bears wasted no time asserting their rushing dominance, taking the opening drive 75 yards on seven plays including runs of 16, 10 and 33 yards on the first three plays of the game by Richardson to put CSP in the red zone. A 9-yard connection from Reed Styer to Daniel Hornacek set CSP up with a 1st-and-goal from the six, and two plays later wide receiver Troy Ellison scored around the left end for a 4-yard rushing touchdown. The scoring drive took 3:50 and armed Concordia with momentum to start the contest.

Winona State answered with a lengthy drive of its own, however, covering the same turf (75 yards), but in more than double the plays (16) and time (8:00), picking up a third down and a fourth down to keep the drive alive.

Concordia stalled on its next drive, and the Warriors responded by finding the end zone again on another time consuming march, this time covering 6:01 of clock time on an 11-play, 63-yard drive that included three third down conversions (3rd-and-8, 3rd-and-12, 3rd-and-4).

Now trailing 14-7 early in the second quarter, the Golden Bears went back to work on the ground as Richardson opened the ensuing drive by darting for 15 yards around the left side. Hornacek followed with runs of six and 20 yards to push the Golden Bears into Winona State territory at the 34-yard line. With no shortages of talented running backs, CSP turned to Jaylon Washington for five yards, setting up a 19-yard Richardson run into the red zone to the 10-yard line. Two Richardson runs later, Hornacek plunged in from 3rd-and-goal at the 1-yard line to tie the game, capping off an 8-play, 75-yard drive that lasted 4:40.

The teams traded punts on the next two drives before Winona State was able to tally three more points in the 2-minute offense for a 17-14 halftime advantage.

Richardson topped 100 yards by halftime while Hornacek had 4-46 on the ground in the first 30 minutes of play. The run game was so effective, CSP only needed four passing attempts in an efficient offensive half.

In the second half, Winona State opened with the ball and a chance to push the contest to a two-score game. But on the first play of the half, Brayden Hilgemann forced a fumble with McKinley Egland-Young recovering to give Concordia the ball at the WSU 37-yard line. The Golden Bears came up empty on downs, though, unable to convert the turnover into points.

On the next Warrior drive, the defense delivered again, this time by getting to the quarterback as Ben Rehl picked up a sack for a loss of eight on the first play of the drive, and Isaiah Wray secured a third-down sack to force a 3-and-out. An aggressive punt defense had Caden Baarts nearly block the punt, forcing WSU to rush the kick for a 16-yard punt out of bounds, giving CSP prime field position again, this time at the WSU 45-yard line.

But the Golden Bears came up empty with another chance to take the lead, this time with Styer appearing to convert a 4th-and-2 on a keeper to the WSU 35, but a holding penalty negated the pickup and forced a punt, giving the ball back to WSU at its own 20 with 8:17 to play in the third.

This time, the Warriors avoided third downs altogether, marching 80 yards on nine plays in 4:09 including a big 45-yard connection from Cole Stenstrom to Sylvere Campbell to get the Warriors into the red zone.

Campbell was the thorn in CSP's side, turning nine targets into eight catches for 136 yards with 98 yards after the catch in the game. Stenstrom was efficient, as well, completing 21-27 for 257 yards with no interceptions. The Warriors' third quarter touchdown extended a game that CSP had two chances to take the lead into a two-possession game, 24-14.

The Concordia defense came up with another three-and-out late in the third quarter, setting the offense up with good field position at the CSP 39 yard line. Styer proceeded to pick up a pair of first downs, first by rushing for four yards and connected with Russell Corrigan for six, then taking it himself for 10 more yards to the WSU 40. CSP then picked up a 4th-and-1 at the WSU 30, but were unable to convert a 43-yard field goal with 10:22 to play to bring it back to a one-possession contest.

The Warriors responded with a decisive blow, picking up a 3rd-and-11 from their own 35 on a pass over and into coverage. They'd pick up one more third down on the drive, breaking a 3rd-and-3 for a 32-yard touchdown by Cair'ron Hendred with 5:08 to go. Hendred finished with 15 carries for 99 yards and two touchdowns.

Styer completed 14-25 for 91 yards while adding 5-12 on the ground. He targeted 10 different options in the pass game, completed passes to nine of them. Carter Ryan led the team with three receptions for 20 yards while Washington had 2-16 receiving to go with his 3-18 rushing. Troy Ellison had 2-15 receiving, 1-4 rushing with a touchdown, and totaled 31 all-purpose yards.

Concordia's defense was led by Ben Rehl's nine tackles, 1.5 for loss and a sack while Cyrus McClure continued his strong start with eight stops including a half for loss. Fellow safety Machai Campbell aided McClure with seven tackles.