MOORHEAD, Minn. – Concordia-St. Paul (1-1, 0-1 NSIC) dropped its NSIC-opener 48-30 to MSU Moorhead (2-0, 1-0 NSIC) at SCHEELS Field at Nemzek Stadium in the first road game of the season for the Golden Bears on Thursday night.
Concordia, who opened the year with a pair of Thursday night games, will return home for a pair of noon kickoffs at Sea Foam Stadium the next two Saturdays, starting with the University of Mary on September 12 followed by Homecoming on September 19 against Bemidji State.
Golden Bear sophomore quarterback
Lincoln Graf completed 16-26 for 179 yards and a pair of touchdowns and added a rushing touchdown to pace a CSP offense that produced 366 yards on 67 plays and featured balance with 168 rushing and 198 passing.
Graf found running back
Manny Harris for two touchdown strikes as Harris had 6-88 receiving and added 7-26 rushing and led the team with 131 all-purpose yards.
Concordia's three-headed monster in the backfield all had 89-plus all-purpose yards as they continue to maximize touches to Harris,
BJ Davis and
Joel Lacy.
Davis 10-77 rushing and sprung a 33-yard rushing touchdown and had a 19-yard kickoff return for a 96-yard day. Lacy had nine carries for 64 yards and added 4-25 receiving for an 89-yard day.
The trio each had seven or more carries and Lacy and Harris combined for 10 receptions on 12 targets. CSP rushed for 168 yards on 40 attempts.
The offense was outdueled by first-year starting quarterback Drew Huebner who completed 17-28 for 240 yards and three touchdowns, adding 13-99 and a pair of rushing touchdowns. He connected with Kelly Johnson for 9-117 and two touchdowns and Kalen Lucas for 5-60 and a touchdown.
The Dragons set the tone for how their night would go offensively on the first drive. Concordia's defense had a pair of strong plays, as Airrion Bradley secured a tackle for loss on first down and
Cal Nitti made a tackle for a 2-yard gain in the open field to force the Dragons' new quarterback into a 3
rd-and-9 from their own 26-yard line.
MSUM converted the third down, and would pick up a 3
rd-and-2 near midfield, as well, marching for an opening drive touchdown.
The Dragons were nearly flawless on third downs, converting 8-of-9 and punting just once, and the opening drive red zone touchdown was the first of seven trips to the red zone for MSUM.
Concordia responded with an efficient offensive possession with Graf coming up with a third-down conversion of his own, finding freshman
Jonah Schimelpfenig for a 22-yard hookup on 3
rd-and-3 from the MSU 49 to move into scoring position.
Two plays later, Graf found Harris on the back shoulder for an acrobatic 22-yard catch to the 1-yard line, setting up a Graf plunge on second down to make it a 1-point game early on.
On MSU Moorhead's ensuing drive, they didn't need any third-down conversions to move into the red zone, but linebacker
Ben Rehl tipped a 2
nd-and-goal pass with sophomore safety
Aydin Buchanan intercepting it near the goal line to stop the Dragons.
Graf continued to drive the Golden Bears, as he completed his first seven passes of the day. Early in the second quarter,
BJ Davis converted a 3
rd-and-3 from the MSUM 33-yard line by finding open space around the left tackle with wide receiver
Tony Edwards III securing the edge with a critical block to send Davis to the end zone for CSP's first lead, 13-7 with 13:19 to play in the half.
But with the quarter flipping to the second, so did the wind, which was a consistent 15-plus mile per hour factor at CSP's backs in the first quarter, but with the Dragons backs in the second and third.
MSUM would score three times after CSP took its lead, getting touchdowns with 10:46, 5:22 and 2:07 in the quarter to take a 27-13 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, MSUM scored a pair of touchdowns while Concordia managed just a field goal, a 49-yarder by
James Graves which had cut the margin to 34-16 with 3:56 to play in the quarter, capping off CSP's longest drive of the game, an 8:03 methodical march to go 52 yards on 12 plays for the three points.
In the fourth quarter, with the wind on its side, CSP went back to work, as Graf found Harris for a pair of 26-yard touchdown passes, the first capped a 91-yard touchdown drive on nine plays in 3:21 of action with 12:31 to play to make it a 41-23 game.
Despite CSP's late run with the third-quarter field goal and fourth-quarter touchdown, the Dragons kept finding the end zone with a late third-quarter touchdown with under a minute left, and a fourth-quarter score with 5:28 to play before the second Graf-Harris connect in the final two minutes.
While Concordia secured the first-quarter interception by Buchanan, the final turnover margin ended up even as Graf finally committed his first turnover as a college quarterback in his sixth game (fifth start) as he scrambled out of the pocket on a 2
nd-and-18 play from CSP's own 31 yard line on its opening drive of the third quarter.
The Dragons capitalized, turning a 27-13 contest with Concordia possessing the ball into a 34-13 game, scoring three plays later.
The Golden Bears would get their long Graves field goal on the next possession thanks to a 4
th-and-2 fake punt as head coach
Joshua Schumacher went to the bullpen and used his pitch-calling skills to draw up a
Caden Carsen change-up over the middle to defensive back
CJ Jackson for a 19-yard first down.
But the Dragon offense was too overpowering playing in its second-straight home Thursday night football game to start the season. The Dragons rushed for 242 yards on 33 carries and passes for 240 yards on 17-28 passing for a 482-yard night of total offense.
Concordia improved its third-down production, going from 3-14 in the opener to 6-14 in tonight's game. But more importantly, CSP continued to execute on fourth down, converting all four attempts to start the year 7-7 on fourth.
Marquis Coleman led CSP with six tackles and added a tackle for loss. Rehl finished the game with four tackles and was a menace in coverage with four pass breakups with one leading to the Buchanan interception.
Jude Onuoha also had four tackles and recorded a sack.
