COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - It was just a summer workout this past offseason - members of the Saint John's University offense going against members of the Johnnie defense in a seven-on-seven drill.

But when junior tight end Joey Gendreau caught a pass from quarterback Aaron Syverson and turned toward the end zone, he found his cousin Cooper Yaggie - a two-time All-MIAC senior linebacker - waiting.

What happened next was the subject of some dispute.

"He thought he would have scored, and I thought I would have stopped him," the 6-foot, 210-pound Yaggie recalls. "So we got into a bit of an argument."

"The rule in seven-on-seven is you're down where you get tagged," the 6-foot-3, 230-pound Gendreau added. "But it was right at the goal line and it was the last play. I felt like in a game, I'd have been able to run through a couple of guys and roll into the end zone. He felt differently. So we got into it a little bit."

Syverson helpfully suggested the cousins settle their dispute in a 30-yard race - a competition both agree went to Gendreau. 

"He's just a little faster than I am, so he got me there," Yaggie wistfully concedes.

"It was all good," Gendreau added. "We like to get after each other. But once we step off the field, we're still family and we're still friends. We're just really competitive people. That's the way it's always been."

Even as kids, the two often snuck away to a room off the kitchen in the Yaggie family farmhouse near Breckenridge to wrestle.

"We'd get in our fair share of tussles, then we'd eventually get yelled at by our grandpa," Gendreau recalls.

"We're 100 percent a competitive family," Yaggie added. "Growing up, we'd play kickball or football at (the family cabin on Otter Tail Lake), and there were many times someone would leave the field mad or crying. We all like to win. But then everyone hangs out and has fun afterward."

Yaggie grew up in Breckenridge, helping on the farm where his family has grown wheat, soybeans, sugar beets and corn for decades. His parents Bruce and Bradi have now taken over the farm's day-to-day operations, moving into the home in which his grandparents Robert and Darlene lived while he was growing up.

Gendreau - whose mother Nancee is Bruce's sister - grew up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities, where he was a standout at Minnetonka High School. But he visited the farm and cabin often.

"We're a pretty close-knit family and we got together a lot," Gendreau said. "I always loved going up there."

Football has long been part of the family's fabric. Both Robert - now 87 - and Bruce played at North Dakota State. So it was only natural that both Yaggie and Gendreau followed in their footsteps, each drawing plenty of interest from college recruiters after successful prep careers.

"I looked at NDSU and I looked at Concordia because it was in the area and I wanted to stay involved in agriculture," said Yaggie, a global business leadership major who ranked second on the team with 73 tackles, including 7.5 for a loss, a year ago. "But I saw that Saint John's was a great place, and there's a pretty well-known winning culture here that was attractive to me."

Yaggie's decision, in turn, helped bring Gendreau to Collegeville a year later.

"Knowing he was here, and that I'd have someone to hang out with right away and go to for advice if I needed it, was a factor in my decision," said Gendreau, who had six touchdown catches while backing up All-American tight end Alex Larson the past two seasons and has taken over the starting job this fall. "Plus, knowing our family would be able to watch us play on the same team was nice.

"We usually have at least 10 family members, and sometimes around 20, at home games. It's like a mini family reunion."

Indeed, the Yaggie clan are regulars in the tailgate lot - identifiable by the life-size cutouts of both players they put up each home football Saturday.

The cousins have given them plenty to cheer about. Heading into SJU's matchup at Carleton last week, Gendreau had 24 catches for 292 yards this season while Yaggie had 27 tackles, including 7.5 for a loss.

"I'm just really happy we've gotten this chance to play together," said Yaggie, who hopes to work in the agriculture field following his graduation this May with an eye toward one day taking over the family farm. 

"I know it's especially exciting for our grandpa (grandmother Darlene passed away at age 76 in 2016 after a nearly two-year battle with esophageal cancer). He'll be the first to tell you how proud he is. He has both our numbers - No. 3 and No. 0 - on the back of his hat."

"It's been nice for us and nice for our family," added Gendreau, a double major in exercise and health science and global business leadership. "It's been another great way for everyone to spend time together."