WINONA, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul (1-7, 1-6 NSIC, 0-3 South) used a furious fourth quarter comeback, but ended up falling short 24-14 in a bid to upset Winona State's (4-4, 4-3 NSIC, 2-2 South) homecoming festivities at Altra Federal Credit Union Stadium on an overcast Saturday afternoon.

Concordia returns home for the first time in nearly a month next Saturday, hosting Wayne State (4-4, 4-3 NSIC, 2-1 South) for a noon kickoff at Sea Foam Stadium.

Senior running back Daniel Hornacek had his second-straight 100-yard rushing performance with 17 carries for 105 yards (6.2 average) and added five catches for 44 yards out of the backfield. He's put up 299 yards from scrimmage in the past two games. 

While Hornacek had a big day on the offensive side, sophomore defensive end Isaiah Wray had a strong performance on defense, leading CSP with seven total tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss, including a big third down TFL in the first half. 

Winona State mounted a 24-7 lead midway through the fourth quarter, turning three fourth down conversions throughout the contest into three touchdown drives on a day when Concordia's defense was exceptional on third down, holding WSU to 2-11 on the afternoon.

But the Warriors picked up a 4th-and-2 from the CSP 19-yard line on their opening drive of the game, scoring on the next play to take the first lead. Concordia would hold Winona State scoreless for the rest of the half, the second time this year that CSP held a team to seven points in a half along with the second half in a road win at Minot State.

Leading 10-7 in the third quarter, Winona State would pick up its second fourth down conversion of the day, facing a 4th-and-4 from the CSP 20-yard line. And just like the first conversion, WSU would complete a 16-yard pass to not only pick up the first down, but also move inside the CSP 5-yard line. This time it took two plays, but the Warriors would find the end zone for a 17-7 lead with 40 seconds left in the third quarter.

Still leading 17-7 in the fourth quarter, Concordia once again had WSU facing a fourth down, a 4th-and-1 from the CSP 27, with WSU picking up a 3-yard run, most of that coming on a strong second effort to move the chains. The drive once again resulted in a touchdown, extending WSU's lead to 24-7 with 6:41 to play in the game - a three-score margin with under seven minutes to play.

Prior to WSU's final scoring drive, the Golden Bear defense was able to get its first fourth down stop, turning the Warriors over on downs with under 12 minutes remaining, but the offense wasn't able to capitalize after Hornacek's six-yard run on first down. 

The Golden Bears would get the ball three more times, though, and all three times would have the ball in a position to score. On its first of three late-game drives, the Golden Bears were forced to start from their own six yard line. The Golden Bears would advance to WSU territory, though, with senior opening day quarterback Zachary Yeager running the offense in the second half and using his legs to pick up four yards on a 3rd-and-4 from his own 12. A few plays later, he would connect deep down the left sideline for a 28-yard completion to EJ Previlma. CSP moved into WSU territory on runs of five and nine yards by Hornacek, and a 5-yard pickup by Yeager on 3rd-and-9 put CSP in a 4th-and-4 situation from the WSU 36 with senior Troy Ellison taking a 13-yard loss on a sack on a double-pass that was covered by the Warriors.

Despite coming up empty on downs with 2:37 to play, the Golden Bears kept at it, with safety Byron Sweeny forcing a fumble on the next play with Michael Hall recovering on the CSP 43 with 2:25 to play.

Yeager then went to work, completing six-straight passes as CSP marched downfield for a touchdown, the longest pass being the 10-yard touchdown strike to Tony Edwards, who had his best receiving game as a Golden Bear with four catches for 44 yards and his first CSP touchdown, which was also Yeager's first CSP touchdown pass. 

Concordia's score and the Kenny Steffen PAT brought the margin back to 10, 24-14, with 57 seconds to play as Steffen would then execute a well placed onside kick, which WSU attempted to recover on a clean bounce at the 44-yard line but the play was disrupted by an immediate collision with Mike King, dislodging the ball with Carter Zezulka recovering at the 46. 

The late game magic would come to an end, though, as the Warriors secured two of their seven sacks on the final series including a fourth down sack of CSP's starting quarterback in the game, MJ Mitchell.

Mitchell had a solid first half in his third career start, completing 8-15 for 81 yards, led an offense that executed more first downs (8) than Winona State (6) and didn't commit any turnovers. He moved the offense into WSU territory on CSP's second and third possessions of the game, and engineered at least one first down on CSP's first three times with the ball before a pair of three-and-outs to end the first half, and CSP was scoreless in the first half on five possessions with four punts and a blocked field goal.

Yeager had an up-and-down performance in his first game back after leaving with an injury in the third quarter of the season opener at Quincy. He engineered a touchdown drive on Concordia's first possession of the second half, an 8-play, 79-yard march to make it a 10-7 game. His first pass was a 16-yard completion to Edwards as CSP had first downs on back-to-back plays, starting with Hornacek's 11-yard run to open the drive. Yeager also had a pair of six-yard runs on the drive, which culminated with a 24-yard touchdown run by Joel Lacy.

While he started his day with a 16-yard completion, Yeager would then see his next six pass attempts fall incomplete before getting hot, completing eight of his next nine including the six-straight completions on his second touchdown drive.

Yeager finished the day 9-16 for 92 yards and a touchdown and added 8-18 rushing. The Mitchell/Yeager tandem combined to give CSP a 17-31 passing line for 173 yards and a touchdown. 

While Hornacek (5-44) and Edwards (4-44) led the team in receiving, the group also received contributions from Ellison (3-31) and Previlma (2-33).

Isaiah Wray wasn't the only Wray brother to have a strong performance on defense, as Elijah Wray added five tackles along with Mike King. Aydin Buchanan had four tackles and a pass breakup, and Jordan Johnson added three tackles and a pair of pass breakups.

CSP's defense had the only turnover in the game, the Sweeny/Hall fumble, and Jameson Jean had an interception in the end zone wiped away due to a penalty. 

Junior punter Caden Carsen had another strong day with a 39.8 punt average on six punts, forcing five fair catches with a long of 47.

Winona State was led by Jahmani Muhammad with 16 carries for 141 yards on the ground as WSU rushed for 209 yards and two touchdowns on 32 attempts as a team. 

Jackson Flottmeyer completed 13-28 for 162 yards and a touchdown, and added 6-38 and a touchdown on the ground. 

Winona State's seven sacks accounted for 46 lost yards for the Golden Bears, who would have had a 32-carry, 166-yard rushing day as a team without the lost sack yardage. Concordia also had more first downs (20) than WSU (17) and held a 33:09 to 26:51 time of possession advantage.