Last week, the Minnesota State football team allowed 41 points in a loss to Augustana that might have scuttled the season, but coach Todd Hoffner said that players and staff were forced to evaluate themselves, to see if things could be done better.

The changes apparently worked as the Mavericks had a good week of practice that carried over to Saturday’s game.

“We didn’t want that to happen again,” junior defensive end Randy Earl said. “We practiced hard all week, and that showed up on the scoreboard.”

The Mavericks dominated both sides of the football and defeated Concordia-St. Paul 35-0 in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference South Division football game Saturday at Blakeslee Stadium. The Mavericks have won all three home games, by a combined score of 130-32 with two shutouts, the first time Minnesota State has done that in the same season since 1991.

This was a game that was as lopsided as the final score indicated. The Mavericks outgained Concordia-St. Paul 460-149 in total yards, ran 38 more plays and had nearly 20 minutes more in possession time.

“I thought our lines did a tremendous job,” Hoffner said. “It was a big difference between last Saturday’s game and this Saturday’s game. We did a good job of putting the line of scrimmage on Concordia’s side of the ball.”

Hoffner said there were several changes made this week. Defensively, players were graded after each practice, the ends were moved in to better engage opposing tackles and there was more zone played in the game. On offense, Hoffner wanted to see a more upbeat tempo, trying to create a scorer’s mentality.

“We’re not quite there yet,” he said.

The Mavericks led 21-0 at halftime, and it could have been worse. The first drive was capped by Julian Phipps’ 2-yard run and Spencer Goff’s PAT, but on the second, running back Jake Aberg fumbled at the Concordia-St. Paul 1.

Later in the first quarter, Bryan Schmid’s interception gave Minnesota State the ball at the Bears’ 5, and Aberg scored on the next play for a 14-0 lead.

The Mavericks took the ball to Concordia-St. Paul’s 8 early in the second quarter but failed on a fake field goal attempt. The lead grew to 21-0 with 1:16 remaining before halftime when Aberg capped an eight-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.

By halftime, Minnesota State had a 299-86 advantage in total yards and controlled the ball for eight minutes more than the Bears.

The Mavericks had another drive stall deep in Concordia-St. Paul’s territory on an interception early in the third quarter. Eventually, Minnesota State found the end zone at 14:16 of the fourth quarter on Ryan Fick’s 9-yard pass to Chris Nowlin. Grady Derheim kicked the PAT for a 28-0 lead.

The final touchdown came with 6:54 to play, just minutes after a hard rain started at Blakeslee. Ernest Walker carried on nine of the 12 plays, finishing the drive with a 1-yard run.

“Last week was kind of a wakeup call,” senior linebacker Blake Freese said. “We can’t just roll into everybody’s house and take over. We have to bring our A game every time we step on the field.”