ST. PAUL, MN – A punishing ground attack led by Dave Small Jr. and impressive play by both the defense and special teams carried the University of Mary to a 23-13 win at Concordia-St. Paul.
 
Small ran for a career-high 147 yards on the day. Toting the ball 32 times, he ran for the Marauders final score and had a 32 yard burst early in the game. Small had scored a touchdown in every Marauders game this season. His nine straight games with a touchdown is the longest for UMary in the Marauders NCAA era that started in 2006.
 
Gabe Levy tacked on 50 yards rushing and burst 28 yards in the second quarter for the Marauders first touchdown of the day.
 
Overall UMary ran for 202 yards on 46 carries. It's the most rushing yards since rolling up 329 against the University of Minnesota Crookston in the 2019 season finale.
 
Defensively the Marauders kept the Golden Bears off the scoreboard until the final play of the third quarter. Concordia-St. Paul ran for just 86 yards and just totaled 307 overall.
 
UMary generated 351 yards of offense and held a 35:06-to-24:54 edge in time of possession and 21-17 in first downs. The Marauders ran 77 plays to 57 for the Golden Bears.
 
The Marauders opened the scoring on a 37 yard field goal by Kevin Powell with 1:48 left in the first quarter. The 47 yard drive was set up by a blocked punt by Nate Eschleman. It is the Marauders 3^rd blocked punt this season.
 
Back to back sacks in the 2^nd quarter by Eschleman and Mason Phillips led the Marauders to their first touchdown. Levy burst 28 yards up the middle to build the UMary lead to 10-0 with 5:29 remaining in the half. The drive took 16 plays and covered 82 yards while draining 6:29 off the clock.
 
Another long drive in the 3^rd quarter gave UMary an insurmountable lead. Taking possession at the CSP 41, the Marauders drove 59 yards in 13 plays, capped by a Danny Kittner to Jesse Forknell 2 yard touchdown pass. The reigning Northern Sun and D2Football.com special teams player of the week and the all-time NSIC leader in catches and receiving yards, it is the second touchdown pass for the All-American wide receiver this season.
 
Following a Golden Bears touchdown, Kittner gave the Marauders tremendous field position with a 57 yard kick return. Starting at the CSP 32 and featuring three Forknell completions to Collin Gapen, Small finished the 32 yard drive with a 1 yard touchdown run.
 
The Golden Bears scored with 6:54 to play to pull within 23-23 but would draw no closer.
 
Making his second start of the year, Forknell was 15-for-30 for 147 yards passing. Gapen finished with four catches for 50 yards. Kittner had three catches for 21 yards, a touchdown pass, a kick return for 57 yards and two punt returns for 15 yards.
 
Eschleman finished with two tackles for loss, a sack and a blocked punt. Devyn Charles posted 1.5 tackles for loss and a team-leading seven tackles. Tre Gola-Callard had an interception and five tackles. Jakob Petry also added a sack and Ty'Rhae Gibson broke up two passes.
 
Andrew Egnarski led the CSP defense with 22 tackles and two tackles for loss.
 
With their first road win of the season, the Marauders improve to 2-7 on the season and 2-2 in the NSIC North. The Golden Bears are 0-9 and 0-4.
 
UMary next visits Minot State University on November 5 in the Battle for the Big Lake.
 
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