st. Paul, minn. - the concordia university football team (3-2, 2-2 nsic, 1-1 nsic south) took a tough loss on saturday afternoon on homecoming in front of 2,750 fans at sea foam stadium. Looking to pick up their second straight win over a ranked opponent, they fell at home to #20 augustana college (5-0, 4-0 nsic, 2-0 nsic south) in an nsic south division game by a final of 22-16. The vikings made five of six field games in the game to outlast the golden bears. box score

the golden bears came out and played strong in the first half, leading 7-6 at the end of the first quarter and going into halftime tied at 13 with an undefeated augustana squad.

concordia looked very good in the process, doubling up augustana 12-6 in first downs while nearly doubling the high-powered viking offense with a 214-127 advantage. Cu out-rushed (79 to 47) and out-passed (135 to 80) augie significantly led by junior quarterback spencer ohm (blooming prairie, minn.) who had 184 yards of total offense, completing 13-17 for 135 with two touchdowns and rushing for 49 yards on seven attempts including a long of 20.

they took the lead in the first quarter after augustana's first field goal by responding with a seven play, 80 yard drive that spanned 3:34. But it wasn't a methodical drive, but rather another big play strike from ohm to junior receiver charles gilbert (jacksonville, fla.) - a 54 yard connection. All seven of gilbert's touchdowns have been from longer than 20 yards out, and the 54 yard pass play was the longest of the season for concordia's offense. Gilbert has scored in all five games for cu this season.

gilbert would finish the day with his second 100-yard receiving effort with six receptions for 124 yards.

but the vikings answered cu's touchdown with nearly a six minute scoring drive on 13 plays for 58 yards capped by a 30 yard field goal.

the cu defense knew they were facing a stiff test this week against an augustana pass offense among the nation's best. Josh hanson had passed for 1300 yards and 12 touchdowns in four games.

but the golden bears got the job done, shutting the augustana pass attack down. And holding to them to just six first downs in the first half meant they had to settle for two field goals before finally reaching the end zone when hanson found jordan marshall from 19 yards out in the back of the end zone on a 3rd and goal from the 19 - a tough blow for the cu defense.

concordia's pass rush was all over hanson early, sacking him four times in the first half led by sophomore zach moore (chicago, ill.) with a pair. He leads concordia with 5.5 sacks in five games. He finished the day with 2.5 tackles for loss and seven total tackles.

on concordia's four first half sacks, hanson lost big yardage, an average of nearly nine yards per sack.

after the marshall touchdown with under three minutes to play in the half, concordia marched right back on an 11-play, 80 yard drive that culminated with senior tight end hayden vavra's (cambridge, minn.) second career receiving score and second in as many weeks, this one from four yards out from ohm. With 30 seconds to play in the half, concordia had tied the score at 13 but a missed pat kept it that way heading into the break.

with concordia bottling up augustana's passing game in the first half, the vikings turned to the run in the second half and turned the game around in the process. The vikings rushed for 179 of their 226 yards after halftime and controlled the ball for roughly 20 minutes in the second half to keep concordia's strong offense off the field.

but the cu's secondary kept augustana from reaching pay dirt the rest of the day, and bottled hanson up to a 10-26 (38.4%) passing effort for 119 yards to offset the strong rush attack that they boasted in the final two quarters.

meanwhile, the golden bears continued to play balanced football, rushing for 129 yards on 33 attempts as a team while ohm passed for 229. Augustana turned up the heat on ohm in the second half as well, recording three of their four sacks on him in the process.

but ohm still managed to finish the day a solid 19-30 for the 229 yards with two touchdowns. However, two interceptions, both in the middle of the field, proved costly as concordia was unable to force any turnovers and dropped a 2-0 turnover margin in a closely played football game.

the final statistics ended up even overall with concordia out-gaining augustana by 13 yards in total offense (358 to 345).

cu's linebackers continued to lead the defense with junior al quaye (ilb, champlin, minn.) leading the team with 12 tackles with outside linebakers tyler johnson (sr., st. Paul, minn.) and taylor selby (jr., stratford, wis.) each recording 10. Selby had a big sack while johnson added another tackle for loss to his team lead. Inside linebacker trevor glomski (sr., wabasha, minn.) had seven tackles and a sack as well. Five of concordia's top-six tacklers on the day were linebackers, with moore (a defensive end) the only exception with his seven.

augie running back joe clark, who beat concordia with three rushing scores in last year's meeting in sioux falls, led the team with 132 yards on 22 attempts with nate mahone averaged 8.0 per carry with 48 yards on six attempts, doing most of his damage in the second half.

marshall, who got the start in place of ncaa receiving leader tyler schulte (over 600 yards and 10 touchdowns in the first four games), led augie's receivers with four catches for 51 yards and the 19 yard score.

concordia's ground game was led by junior sam campbell (cary, ill.) with 65 yards on 16 attempts while ohm finished with 62 yards on 13 carries and a long of 21.

between the two interceptions, a number of costly penalties including a roughing the kicker on a 4th down punt that kept augustana's drive alive, a missed 4th and short in

augustana territory and augustana converting both of their 4th down conversions - this game was there for the taking for the golden bears. The defensive effort holding augustana's passing game to just 119 yards while rushing against their strong run defense for 129 yards (augie averaged allowing under 50 yards per game to their opponents) are both outstanding team accomplishments.

concordia returns home next saturday, october 9 for a 6:00 p.m. Night game against bemidji state (3-2, 2-2 nsic) in a non-divisional nsic game that count towards the overall league standings.