Sioux Falls (3-3, 1-1 NSIC South)
vs. Concordia St. Paul
(3-3, 0-2 NSIC South)
Saturday, October 12, 2013
11:00 a.m. CST
Sea Foam Stadium (7,000)
St. Paul, Minn.

Quickly: The University of Sioux Falls Cougars (3-3, 1-1 NSIC South) travel to St. Paul for the first time as a member of the NSIC for an 11 a.m. CT kick against the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears (3-3, 0-2). USF is 6-1 all-time versus the Golden Bears with the only loss coming during the 1971 season (24-16). The teams met 1971-74, 1982-83 but didn't play again until 2012, a 31-23 USF victory.

The Cougars are 3-3 on the season. They lost their season opener at Minnesota Duluth before bouncing back with two wins (Northern State, Minnesota Crookston) sandwiched around a narrow 17-10 loss at the University of Mary. USF earned its first road win of 2013 at Southwest Minnesota State before falling last week to the Warriors of Winona State, 45-40.

A USF win over Concordia St. Paul would...
Improve Coach Stugart's record versus the Golden Bears to 2-0.
Give USF an all-time record of 6-1 against Concordia-St. Paul.
Keep the Cougars in the mix for the NSIC South title.
Improve Coach Stugart's record to 13-2 in the month of October.

USF By the Numbers

• 1: Freshman defensive lineman Evan Gentry made his first career start against Winona State. Gentry is the team leader in sacks (3-for-20) and currently is tied for 3rd with 4.5 TFL.
• 1. The Cougars are currently the 3rd-down masters of the NSIC with a 47.5 conversion percentage.
• 1: The Cougars were hit with a single penalty on Saturday. USF averaged 7.4 penalties coming into the showdown with the Warriors.
• 2: Where Luke Papilion ranks nationally with 14 rushing touchdowns, which is also tops in the NSIC.
• 3: Yard strike redshirt freshman Corbin Lawler placed in Wes Smith's hands late in the Winona State game for his first career touchdown.
• 7: Carrington Hanna moved up to 7th all-time on USF's career receptions chart with 107 career grabs.
• 8: Where the COO ranks in the NSIC in red zone offense, at 74%. SMSU ranks first at 88.5%.
• 16: Cougars' NSIC ranking for penalties (73.3 ypg).
• 19: Carrington Hanna's 11-catch outing versus the Warriors extended his streak of games with at least one reception to 19. The streak started on 10/29/11 vs. Minot State and Mr. Reliable now has 1,324 career receiving yards to go with 13 touchdown grabs.
• 19: Consecutive winning seasons for the USF football program.
• 21: The Cougars' NCAA D-II ranking for kickoff returns (24.17), down close to four yards from the prior week. In contrast, Concordia is currently 31st (23.36).
• 22: Catches for Carrington Hanna in the Cougars' last three games. The senior wideout had 10 receptions in USF first three contests.
• 66: USF and Winona State combined for 85 points; 66 more than the combined tally from the prior meeting (a 10-9 WSU victory).
• 520: # of yards that the Cougars have surpassed last season's rushing total by; USF picked up 1,359 yards on the ground in 2012 and have 1,879 yards through the first six games (and 21 rushing TD's).
• 715: Nephi Garcia's rushing total through the Cougars' first six games; 123 more yards than USF's leading rusher (592) gained in the entire 2012 season.

Century Club: Sioux Falls currently has three players that have surpassed the 100-yard rushing mark: Luke Papilion (738), Nephi Garcia (725) and Brady Rose (120). The Cougars have three more players that are less than 30 yards away from 100 yards: Joseph Hlushak (84), Dakota Fiene (79) and Matt Young (73). The last time the Cougars finished a season with six players who accumulated 100 or more rushing yards was 2009: R. Lowmiller (1,487), L. Brown (844), K. Porter (632), J. Crowl (396), I. Small (201) and M. Dunbar (156). USF has never had a team with seven 100-yard rushers; the 2013 edition of the COO has a chance of doing that with Garrett Shutt (45) and Carrington Hanna (29) both having the ability to pound the rock.

Long Time Coming: Six-year senior Austin Vanhove's two-touchdown performance against Winona State was his first multi-score outing in 1,084 days. The last time USF's “Super Senior” had two touchdown grabs was Oct. 23, 2010, when he hauled in two TD passes from Jon Eastman in the Cougars' 63-3 demolishing of Dakota Wesleyan. Vanhove's other multi-TD day came on Sept. 12, 2009, when he caught a pair of scoring strikes from Lorenzo Brown during a 76-3 rout of the now-defunct Dana College.

Scoring Early: The Cougars needed just 3:35 to get on the scoreboard in the loss at Winona State, as Luke Papilion rushed seven yards into the endzone on the game's 13th play. It was the second time in six games this season that USF has scored on its first possession.

...And Now More Often: The Cougars have scored 41 first-quarter points in their last three games (2-1) after tallying a total of 10 first quarter points in the first three games of the season.