October 18, 2003

St. Paul, Minn. - After 1,241 total yards and 111 total points in St. Paul on Saturday afternoon, the dust settled on Griffin Stadium with Concordia-St. Paul emerging with a 59-52 win in a battle of unbeaten teams in NSIC play.

The game was a battle of streaks all day long. The first streak belonged to Concordia-St. Paul when the Bears' Travis Kortuem hauled in a 15-yard reception to put the home team up 24-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Northern State then got back into things with a scoring spirt of its own when Owen Olson hit a 22-yard field goal followed by two touchdowns from Toby Korrodi to Charlie Johnston to put the Wolves up 29-24 at the break.

NSU added a Ronnie Cruz touchdown scamper to open the third while the Wolves took their largest lead of the day at 35-24 with 11:01 to play in the third.

For the remainder of the third period the Golden Bears held the advantage hooking up for three touchdowns while the Wolves could only muster a TD and a field goal to go into the fourth down 46-44.

CSP took advantage of a Korrodi interception when quarterback James McNear rushed for an eight-yard score to give the Golden Bears a 52-44 advantage.

On Northern's next drive, they made things interesting going 73 yards in five plays for a Ronnie Cruz 39-yard TD run. With a two-point conversion the Wolves tied the score 52-52 with 9:58 to play in the game.

Concordia took the next drive 92 yards in 11 plays spanning 4:01 to tack on the final score of the day when Chris Washington dove in from one yard out set up by a ten-yard rush by McNear on third and ten earlier in the drive.

Northern was unable to get things going and forced to punt on the ensuing drive while CSP was able to run the clock out to capture the victory at home.

NSU GAME NOTES

-NSU's Toby Korrodi broke the NSU school record for single-game passing yards with 502 on the day. Korrodi went 31-for-49 passing while throwing four touchdowns on the day.

-NSU receiver Charlie Johnston hauled in 11 receptions for 220 yards and four touchdowns.

-NSU completed its third consecutive game with over 600 yards of total offense with 623 on the afternoon.

-Ronnie Cruz continued his nice rushing season. The senior carried the ball 23 times for 124 yards and two touchdowns. He now needs just 77 yards to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark on the season.

-Owen Olson hit 4-of-4 field goals on the day (22, 22, 27, 35 yards). He also punted four times for an average of 42.2 yards per punt.

-NSU's Jason Carson led the defensive effort with nine tackles, one tackle for loss, one interception and one pass broken up.

-Concordia-St. Paul gained 618 total yards on the day. Chris Washington rushed for 166 yards, while James McNear came in with 106. McNear threw for 325 yards while Joseph Mapson caught eight balls for 137 yards.

-Northern State hosts Bemidji State on Oct. 25 at 1:30 p.m. at Swisher Field. The game marks NSU's final home contest of the season.

Complete Game Statistics