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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The key is back at Augustana. The Vikings football team prevailed 20-13 over rival Sioux Falls Thursday night at Bob Young Field in the Key to the City game.
 
Senior quarterback Zach Masoli scampered two yards into the end zone early in the fourth quarter to break a 13-13 tie. With the point-after from Luis Guarita, the 20-13 score would hold to bring the key back to the Augustana campus for the first time since 2015.

"It's important for our program to get this win," head coach Jerry Olszewski said. "Our kids have worked so hard for it. It's time."


 
The game-winning touchdown was a short-lived 2-yard, 5-second drive, set up by a bad snap on a Cougar punt attempt. The snap sailed over the head of Thomas Chapin where he tried bringing the ball out of the end zone and was brought down at the two-yard line by Sam Roble.
 
Masoli, who entered the game the previous series that ended with a Guarita 32-yard field goal, scored the second rushing touchdown of his career.
 
The Augustana defense pressured the Cougars to just 38 yards rushing on 46 attempts and sacked quarterback Caden Walters seven times for 55 yards. The first sack of the game came on the third play of the contest when junior Logan Swanson had a strip-sack. Sophomore Grayson Diepenbrock recovered the ball and returned it to the Cougars five-yard line to set up true-freshman Jarod Epperson for his first-career touchdown.
 
Late in the first quarter, Sioux Falls scored on a two-yard rush but trailed 7-6 after the point-after attempt failed.
 
Guarita split the uprights on a 37-yard field goal into the wind to push the Vikings ahead 10-7 early in the second quarter, a score that would hold through intermission.
 
Sioux Falls appeared to seize some momentum midway through the third quarter when Walters connected with Thuro Reisdorfer for a 25-yard touchdown, giving the Cougars their first lead of the game at 13-10.
 
Augustana, looking for its own momentum, forced its second fumble of the game when Kenneth Griffin pulled the ball loose from Nate Johnson, with Kyle Theis falling on it at the Sioux Falls 21-yard line. That's when Masoli entered, setting up Guarita for the game-tying 32-yard field goal, and minutes later, the game-winning touchdown.
 
The ending wasn't without drama as Sioux Falls started chewing time off the clock on a 15-play, 65-yard drive and threatening to score with under five minutes on the clock. However, sophomore Eli Weber had other thoughts, picking off his third pass of the season in the Cougars end zone. Weber now leads the NSIC with three interceptions while the Vikings have totaled eight through four games.
 
Augustana took nearly three minutes off the clock, giving the ball back to Sioux Falls with 1:51 remaining but again relied on a sack and a fourth-down stop to seal the game.
 
Masoli did not attempt a pass but quickly rushed for 24 yards while Epperson tallied 47. Epperson was also the team's top receiver with two catches for 39 yards.
 
But the story of the game was the defense with 11 tackles for loss, and the seven sacks. Reigning NSIC Defensive Player of the Week T.J. Liggett led the team with 10 tackles while adding a sack. Swanson tallied eight tackles and two sacks while Diepenbrock had four tackles and two sacks.
 
"We liked our matchups in the game," Olszewski added. "We talked about being a more physical football team to win games like this. We prepared ourselves for that and thought the team executed and we were physical enough to win the game."
 
Augustana begins cross-division action on Saturday, Oct. 5 at Bemidji State. Kickoff from Bemidji, Minnesota, is slated for 2 p.m.