Maverick football jumped to No. 11 after defeating Concordia-St. Paul 58-10

The Minnesota State football team returned to Blakeslee Stadium this past weekend to face Concordia-St. Paul in their fifth game of the season. 

After a rough 1-1 start to the season, seeing the Mavericks get dominated by Minnesota Duluth, the team has been on a tear ever since. 

The Mavs have scored 45 or more points in their last two contests, and brought the juice to their matchup against the Golden Bears for their homecoming game. 

The Mavericks absolutely dominated the Golden Bears, winning the game by a score of 58-10.

Both teams started off the game slow, but only wasted a few minutes on the clock before Minnesota State got the first points on the board. From then on, there was no stopping the Mavericks.

The Mavs were able to absolutely light up the scoreboard in the first half and not look back, scoring 38 unanswered points. 

Minnesota State’s defense and special teams was smothering in the first half which led to holding the Golden Bears to zero points including a 53 yard punt return touchdown from Ty’Shonan Brooks.

The Mavericks first half onslaught was highlighted by two rushing touchdowns on back-to-back Minnesota State drives by senior quarterback JD Ekowa. 

Heading into the second half all the Mavericks needed to do was hold on, and they did just that.

After letting up a field goal to the Golden Bears on their first drive after half, the Mavs were able to hold Concordia-St.Paul scoreless until late in the fourth quarter. 

Minnesota State continued their scoring onslaught in the second half, tallying three more touchdowns before the end of the third behind a 21 touchdown pass from Hayden Ekern to Jalen Sample and two rushing touchdowns.

The fourth quarter remained scoreless until the final four minutes, where the Golden Bears were able to put up their second score of the game in the form of a 36 yard touchdown run by Brandon Marenco with 3:13 remaining in the game. 

The final score of the game was 58-10, and the Mavericks improved their overall record to 4-1.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Hayden Ekern led the Mavericks through the air in this one, while only attempting five passes on the rainy day. Ekern completed four passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns while senior quarterback JD Ekowa decided to use his legs to his advantage, rushing for 27 yards and two touchdowns.

The Mavericks featured themselves as a run heavy team while the rain never held off, rushing a total of 53 times for 350 yards. It was a completely split backfield for the Mavs, while redshirt freshman Charles Coleman led the Mavericks with 88 yards and two touchdowns. 

Minnesota State’s defense was smothering on Saturday, holding Concordia-St.Paul to only 167 total yards of offense. 

Senior Amiri Finner led the Mavericks defense in tackles versus the Golden Bears with six. 

The Mavericks defense also totaled 11 tackles for loss to go along with three sacks, in a truly dominant performance from the defensive side of the ball. 

Minnesota State returns to Blakeslee Stadium this Saturday Oct. 9 at 1:00 p.m. to face Wayne State in their sixth game of the season. 

Wayne State also enters this game with an overall record of 4-1, and should be a great test to prove Minnesota State’s new spot at No. 11 in the AFCA poll.

Feature photo by Mansoor Ahmad/The Reporter