MARSHALL, Minn. - On a cold, windy and overcast day in Marshall, Minnesota, Concordia-St. Paul (2-8, 2-7 NSIC, 1-4 South) dominated the run game on both sides of the ball to secure a 19-14 road win over Southwest Minnesota State (1-9, 1-8 NSIC, 0-5 South) at the Schwan Regional Event Center. 

Concordia returns home for senior day next Saturday with a noon kickoff at Sea Foam Stadium against Sioux Falls (6-4, 5-4 NSIC, 2-3 South). 

With cold and windy conditions, Concordia's dominance of the line of scrimmage was a big factor, as Concordia ran the ball 47 times for 252 yards while limiting the host Mustangs to 21-37 on the ground. Concordia's defense also came through with five pass breakups, four tackles for loss, a pair of sacks and a red zone interception with a 53-yard return by Jonas Barros who led the team with six tackles.

The ground game was led by junior Joel Lacy and senior Daniel Hornacek. Lacy had a career day, rushing for 143 yards on 17 carries with three touchdowns including a 91-yarder on a drive that started just inches outside of CSP's own goal line with Lacy carrying twice on the two-play, 99-yard scoring drive. It was Lacy's first career 100-yard rushing performance as a Golden Bear. Lacy also had two catches for nine yards, topping 150 combined yards (152).

Lacy's 91-yard run is the second-longest rushing play in Concordia's record book, one yard shy of Eric Schutte's 1997 record run of 92 yards against Maranatha, and topping LeRoy McBrayer (1978), Chris Washington (2003) and Aaron Cawthorn (2006) who each had 89-yard hauls.

Hornacek, meanwhile, had his third 100-yard rushing performance of the season and fourth of his career. Fresh off topping the 1,000-yard mark last week, Hornacek kept his momentum going forward in the second half of the season as his three 100-yard games have come in a four-game stretch. He carried 24 times for 129 yards and added 2-11 receiving for 140 scrimmage yards.

It's the second time in Hornacek's career that he's been part of a running game that produced two 100-yard rushers. In his sophomore season in 2023, he had his first career 100-yard day with 10-100 and a touchdown while then-junior Jaylin Richardson had 16 carries for 108 yards and two touchdowns in a 43-20 win over Upper Iowa in the season opener at Sea Foam Stadium (8/31/2023). 

The team rushing performances were team-bests for both the offense (252) and defense (37), and the 215-yard disparity in the run game is the highest since a 215-yard disparity in a 37-34 win over UMary when CSP rushed for 295 yards and held the Marauders to 80 (9/30/2023). 

Today was Concordia's second 200-yard rushing performance of the season, topping the 207 yards produced at Augustana in week seven, while the 37 yards allowed on the ground is the second time holding an opponent under 100 rushing yards this season, also holding Quincy to 84 yards in the season opener.

The Golden Bear defense had its hands full with a Mustang offense that had been passing with success in recent weeks as Macloud Crowton entered having passed for over 2,000 yards on the year with five-straight 200-plus passing performances including 453 yards and three touchdowns against Augustana (10/25).

Today, Concordia held SMSU to just 183 yards on 17-37 passing. Crowton started the game and completed 6-8 for 76 yards, but was intercepted in the red zone by Barros, who returned it 53 yards the other way. Backup Drew Kluender passed for 107 yards and a touchdown and added 6-30 on the ground as SMSU's most effective rusher, but was just 11-of-29 passing and CSP's secondary produced five pass breakups and an interception with two sacks. 

The Golden Bears also forced nine punts, held SMSU to 4-16 on third down, 1-2 on fourth down and held SMSU to 14 points on three red zone trips while CSP held a decisive 33:55 to 26:05 time of possession margin.

While Barros led the team with six tackles, the INT and 53-yard return and a pass breakup, Isaiah Wray had another strong effort on the line with five tackles, a half for loss and a forced fumble. The defensive line also produced a sack each from Howard Craft and Marvin Stringfellow, with Craft putting up 1.5 TFLs among his three total tackles. 

On a difficult day for kicking, junior Caden Carsen finished the day with a solid 40.6 average on seven punts with a long of 57, one inside the 20 and a team 38.1 net average. Freshman BJ Davis had three kickoff returns for 78 yards and a season-long of 31 yards.

Concordia had a clear game plan for the game's conditions and didn't need to rely on the pass game, with quarterback Zachary Yeager playing turnover-free football, completing 6-10 for 44 yards.