BOX SCORE

MARSHALL, Minn. – Augustana College football was firing on all cylinders on Saturday in Marshall, Minn. as the Vikings defeated Southwest Minnesota State 47-3 in the season finale for both teams. Augustana finished the game with 565 yards of total offense for the fifth time this season while recording two takeaways and a blocked punt return for a touchdown.
 
Augustana finishes the season 6-5 (3-4 NSIC South), marking the program's first winning record since 2011. Southwest Minnesota State finishes the season 5-6, including 2-5 in the South Division.
 
Trey Heid closed-out the season in a big way completing 26 of 37 passes for 363 yards and three touchdowns. Heid also rushed for 60 yards and a touchdown. He closes-out the season with 25 touchdown passes. Heid has thrown for 300-plus yards in a game four times in his career
 
Senior Dajon Newell closed-out his career with his 15th 100-yard performance on the same field where he picked up his first career 100-yard rushing game. In four games against Southwest Minnesota State, Newell has rushed for 100-plus yards three times. Newell finished with 100 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries and finishes his career second all-time at Augustana with 3,246 career yards and 28 rushing touchdowns.
 
Matt Heller recorded his second straight 100-yard receiving game finishing with 109 yards on six catches with a touchdown reception. Charlie Hayes picked up 83 yards and two receiving touchdowns on seven receptions while Nick Lee hauled in three passes for a career-high 73 yards.
 
Senior defensive tackle Jake Lee had a huge day in the final game of his career matching his career-high with 10 tackles (2.0 for loss) to go along with one sack and one fumble recovery. Brandon Mohr led the team with 13 tackles while Nate Kirby added 12.
 
The Vikings scored on their first drive of the game and never looked back nearly shutting out SMSU on its home field.  
 
Augustana got the scoring started in the game as the Vikings took the opening drive 64 yards on six plays for the game's first touchdown. Newell found the end zone on a nine-yard carry for his sixth rushing touchdown of the season to give Augustana a 6-0 lead.
 
The Vikings extended their lead to 12-0 on their next possession as Heid led the offense on a 16-play 83-yard drive that ended with a five-yard touchdown reception by Heller. Augustana missed extra point attempts on its first two scores of the day.
 
SMSU was able to get into Augustana territory for the first time of the day on the following possession but the Viking defense would come up with a goal-line stand and hold the Mustangs to a 24-yard field goal by Mike Wenk to make the score 12-3 with 12:56 remaining in the first half.
 
Both teams would go three-and-out on their next possessions and when Augustana took over with 9:24 to play in the first half they started marching right down the field. Heid completed six passes on the drive and he eventually scored on a one-yard run and the Vikings took a 19-3 lead after a successful extra point attempt by Lucas Wainman with 4:21 remaining in the half.
 
Augustana got the ball back one more time but saw its drive stall near midfield and the Vikings lined up with the offense on the field on fourth and long but Heid sent a pooch punt that was downed inside the one yard line giving SMSU the ball deep in its own territory with 1:23 remaining in the half.
 
The Mustangs got the ball out to midfield but Christiaan Malinowski came up with a sack that would end the first half. The Vikings finished the half with 252 yards of total offense, including 82 rushing yards and 170 passing.
 
SMSU got the ball to start the second half but the Vikings were able to turn the Mustangs over when Chad Curry stepped in front of a Charlie Kern pass for his team-leading third interception of the season. The Vikings turned that into seven points as six plays later Heid found Hayes in the corner of the end zone for a four-yard score to push Augustana's lead to 26-3 after the point-after attempt.
 
Augustana's special teams came up with its second blocked kick in as many games when Teagan Brown broke through the line to block a punt. Brown scooped up the ball and ran into the end zone for his third career return for a touchdown after a blocked kick giving Augustana a 33-3 lead. He has blocked three kicks this season and was the last player at Augustana to return a blocked kick for a touchdown which happed against Bemidji State on Sept. 21, 2013.
 
On Augustana's first full drive of the fourth quarter, Newell broke loose for a 57-yard touchdown run to make it 40-3 with 9:30 to play in the game. Hayes hauled in his second receiving touchdown of the game with 3:53 to play that pushed Augustana's lead to 47-3 where the game would stay.
 
Augustana had 18 seniors play the final game of their career on Saturday. Teagan Brown, Grant Gebhardt, Matt Gerry, Justin Heinrich, Trevor Houser, Paul Ingram, Andy Jirik, Nate Kirby, Mo Kromah, Jake Lee, Nick Lee, Dajon Newell, Nick Pappas, Jukka Rysgaard, Zach Sirek, Ben Skelly, Scott Stark and Sam Thorson.