Minnesota College Football: Concordia-St.Paul gets comeback win at Wayne State

WAYNE, Neb. – Concordia-St. Paul (3-1 NSIC, 3-1 South) picked up a 28-21 comeback win on the road, topping Wayne State (1-3 NSIC, 1-3 South) on Saturday evening at Bob Cunningham Field (Memorial Stadium).

The Golden Bears move to 3-1 for the first time since the 2013 season. Earlier this year, CSP snapped a 10 game losing streak in road night games dating back to that same 2013 season and have now won two road night games in a row.

Concordia also improves to 11-10 all-time against Wayne State in an annual series dating back to 1999 when Concordia joined the Northern Sun (NSIC) and made the move to NCAA Division II membership. It was Concordia’s first win in Wayne America since 2013, a 28-24 win. The last five games played at Bob Cunningham Field have been decided by seven points or less.

The Golden Bears will look to slay another streak next Saturday, hitting the road to face St. Cloud State for a 1 p.m. start at Husky Stadium. Concordia is 0-5 all-time against St. Cloud State and 0-2 against the Huskies in road games.

In tonight’s win, Concordia came out strong, finished the first half and started the second half strong and closed out the fourth quarter.

CSP forced and recovered a fumble on Wayne State’s opening drive with the Wildcats marching into CSP territory and followed it up with a 49-yard Danny Laudet field goal.

The Wildcats responded with a pair of second quarter touchdowns before the Golden Bears executed in the two-minute offense with a 9-play, 75-yard drive capped by a 6-yard touchdown pass from senior Maxon Hutton to senior Marcus Gustaveson with 27 seconds to play in the half.

After winning the coin toss and deferring, Concordia started with the ball in the third quarter and made it a 14-13 game with Laudet’s second field goal, securing points on a 12-play, 72 yard drive that sapped the first six-plus minutes off the clock in the second half.

After a defensive stop, three minutes later Hutton converted a 3rd-and-6 with a 76-yard touchdown run for a 20-14 lead with 5:20 to play in the third quarter.

Wayne State rallied back, going ahead on a 17-yard touchdown pass with 7:44 to play for a 21-20 lead.

Finishing strong, Concordia’s offense executed in the clutch with a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive taking nearly five minutes (4:44) and finished off by a three yard touchdown run by freshman Darios Crawley-Reid.

The two-point conversion from Hutton to senior Jabril Clewis was converted for a 7-point lead (28-21) with three minutes to play.

The defense then finished the job as junior defensive end Chris Garrett was credited with a pass breakup to stop a 4th-and-6 from the CSP 48 yard line with 1:11 to play.

The third quarter defensive effort was clutch in the road win. After WSC gained 258 yards of total offense in the first half, Concordia held WSC to 54 yards in the third quarter and most importantly to 0-of-3 on third downs, all around midfield. The Wildcats were just 2-of-6 passing in the third quarter, as well.

The game was full of big individual performances, with Hutton leading the charge with his second career 100-yard rushing performance and first of 2019. He carried 16 times, including one sack, for 120 yards and the big 76-yard touchdown run. He also completed 16-of-24 for 172 yards and a touchdown. His 75.0 completion percentage pushes CSP to 7-5 when head coach Shannon Currier‘s offense completes at least 54.0 percent of passes in a game since returning to the sidelines in 2016.

Most importantly, Hutton engineered a turnover-free offensive day as CSP won the turnover margin 1-0.

His 120 yards led a ground game for CSP that rolled up 191 yards and a 5.5 team average on 35 attempts. Crawley-Reid added nine carries for 46 yards and a score along with a pair of catches for 18 yards.

Junior running back Lajuan Preston surpassed 1,000 career rushing yards in the game, carrying six times for 26 yards and a long of 13 while adding a pair of catches for 28 yards and a long of 20.

Hutton’s top target was senior MJ Williams with four catches for 50 yards while Gustaveson had three catches for 46 yards, a touchdown and a long of 35. The duo led the way among a group of targets Hutton spread the ball around to, completing passes to seven different players with six teammates hauling in at least two passes.

Gustaveson crossed the 1,700 yard threshold in his career (1,727), climbing ahead of Tyron Strickland (1977-79) for 10th on the career list. The touchdown was the 18th of his career, tying Joe Langevin (1988-91) for eighth on the receiving touchdown chart.

Defensively, Garrett led the charge with eight total tackles, adding 2.0 tackles for loss with a key first quarter forced fumble, a key fourth quarter pass breakup and a quarterback hurry. Five other Golden Bears had five tackles including team leader Jake Portz who now has 45 on the season. Senior Cole Marmor had the team’s lone sack while senior Dylan Wood recovered the Garrett forced fumble.

On special teams, Laudet had a monster day with a 51.0 punt average on four punts, the second longest single game punting average (minimum 2 punts) in team history, just a half yard behind his own record.

His day was highlighted by a school record 82-yard punt from the CSP 2-yard line late in the first quarter following a big goal line stand that prevented the Wildcats from scoring on a second productive first quarter drive. The 82-yard punt was followed by a nine yard return for a net of 73 yards, pushing Wayne State back to its own 25 yard line.

Laudet also buried a career-long 49 yard field goal, made both of his field goal attempts (49, 20) and all three PATs. He sent five of his six kickoffs for touchbacks, as well.

The big kicking game for CSP’s special teams was vital in a contest that saw Wayne State register team statistical advantages: 28-17 in first downs, 227-191 in rushing, 213-172 in passing, 440-363 in total offense and 32:29 to 27:31 in time of possession.

The Golden Bears were penalized just three times for 16 yards in the contest, though, committed no turnovers, stopped the Wildcats on both of their fourth down conversions and held WSC without points on one of its trips to the red zone. Concordia was also a season-best 8-of-14 on third downs.

Wayne State was led by quarterback Tavian Willis, completing 10-of-13 for 129 yards and a touchdown and adding 16-68 on the ground. Alex Thramer also saw significant action under center, completing 7-of-12 for 84 yards and a touchdown and adding 6-37 in the run game.

Ryyan Wilkins led WSC on the ground with 14 carries for 70 yards while Taurean Grady had 4-64 and a touchdown through the air and Corbin Foster had 4-62 receiving.