ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul dropped its home contest 34-0 on Saturday afternoon against Wayne State at Sea Foam Stadium.

Concordia, now 1-8 overall (1-7 NSIC, 0-4 South), will hit the road next Saturday traveling to Marshall, Minnesota to face Southwest Minnesota State (1-8, 1-7 NSIC, 0-4 South).

Wayne State improves to 5-4 overall, 5-3 NSIC and 3-1 NSIC South and will head to Sioux Falls (6-3, 5-3 NSIC, 2-2 South) next week before host Augustana (9-0, 8-0 NSIC, 5-0 South) in the final week for a potential chance at a share of the NSIC South Division crown. Augustana will host Minnesota State (7-2, 6-2 NSIC, 4-1 South) next Saturday in a pivotal final two weeks of football in the Northern Sun.

The Golden Bear defense found success against Wayne State, but with an offense that produced just five first downs and was unable to utilize complementary football to win the field position battle, the Wildcats would still find the end zone five times in the contest.

The Concordia defense forced a pair of three-and-outs in the first half and secured an interception by Bo Kenney, but Wayne State scored its first touchdown on a short field on a 6-play, 42-yard drive midway through the first quarter, and scored their second on the next drive on a 57-yard drive.

Sophomore defense end Isaiah Wray had his second-straight multi-tackle for loss performance, securing six total tackles with 2.0 tackles for loss and a sack and now leads the team with 7.0 TFLs. Aydin Buchanan had a team-high seven tackles, while Jonas Barros matched I.Wray's six tackles. 

The defense would continue to pile up stops in the second half, limiting the Wildcats with a pair of three-and-outs in a scoreless third quarter, and would get another three-and-out in the fourth. 

Four of Wayne State's touchdown drives would be 60-yards or less, with the exception being a 10-play, 90-yard march spanning 5:13 of play late in the second quarter. The Wildcats' first three touchdowns were all scored on third down, with the fourth TD drive seeing the Wildcats pick up a pair of third downs, while the fifth scoring drive had one third down conversion.

Wayne State was 9-of-16 on third down on the day, while Concordia was 3-of-17.

As a result, the game featured 18 total punts including Caden Carsen tying the school's single-game record with 12 punts, forcing nine fair catches and a pair inside the 20. He averaged 37.3 on the day, including a long of 45 yards while the Wildcats had seven punt return yards on their two returns as CSP had a 36.8 net punting average for Carsen.

Senior running back Daniel Hornacek averaged 4.1 yards on his 11 carries for 45 yards, and added three receptions for -3 yards despite six yards after the catch. He surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards in the contest, producing 1,007 yards on 174 career carries, a 5.8 career average through 35 games, and also went over 1,300 career all-purpose yards with 1,303 including his 296 career receiving yards on 44 catches. 

Concordia quarterbacks Zachary Yeager and Jackson Compton combined to complete 12-28 for 74 yards. Yeager had the long completion for CSP of 39 yards, while Compton was 2-3 for 11 yards while securing a first down on his first two plays under center on his lone drive of the fourth quarter. 

The top receiving performance came from EJ Previlma with a pair of catches for 39 yards including the long play of the day for CSP of 39 yards. Jay Hardy added a pair of catches for 25 yards including a 21-yard catch. 

The Wildcats were led by Dawson Forgy's 19 carries for 75 yards and three touchdowns while Brennan Hayes added 12-49 with a score. WSC rushed for 167 yards and four touchdowns despite CSP limiting the Wildcats to 3.8 per carry. 

Brady McGill completed 4-6 for 31 yards and added 3-23 rushing, and Bennett Dannenbring completed 12-19 for 182 yards and a touchdown. Alex Phelps led WSC's receiving corps with four catches for 76 yards and a touchdown.