ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Augustana football team opened its 100^th season of football with a 28-14 win at Concordia-St. Paul Thursday night. The No. 25 Vikings are 1-0 for the fourth-straight season and have now won six-straight games over CSP.
 
NSIC South Division Preseason Player of the Year Eli Weber secured two interceptions while the running game carried for over 250 yards with nearly 110 of them courtesy of Jarod Epperson.
 
After a scoreless first quarter, the Vikings put together a 9-play, 75-yard drive in the opening minutes of the second quarter to open a 7-0 lead. Casey Bauman carried 17 yards on the quarterback keeper for the Vikings' first touchdown of the season and his first touchdown in the navy and gold.
 
Late in the second quarter, the Vikings again found the end zone, this time completing a 6-play, 48-yard drive to take a 14-0 lead. Bauman hit a fading Jack Fisher on the left side of the end zone. The touchdown marked Fisher's second career touchdown while the 11-yard pass from Bauman was his first passing touchdown at AU.
 
The Golden Bears answered with seconds remaining in the second quarter as the two squads entered intermission with Augustana leading 14-7.
 
The Golden Bears knotted the game at 14-all on the opening drive of the third quarter. After CSP appeared to garner some momentum after forcing an Augustana punt, Weber captured his second interception of the game in Golden Bear territory to quickly swing the pendulum back in AU's favor.
 
That set up Epperson to power in from three yards out and give Augustana a 21-14 lead after Ben Limburg's point-after attempt.
 
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Bauman had a play-action touchdown pass to Matt Francis from five yards out. Francis came from the left side of the field to the right side and made the catch on the goal line to boost Augustana's lead to 28-14, proving to be the final score.
 
Epperson ended the day with 109 yards on the ground while the Viking running back corps totaled 258 yards. Bauman added 68 yards rushing and 62 yards through the air while David Addo rumbled for 57 yards on the ground.
 
Defensively, T.J. Liggett led the Vikings with nine tackles, six of them solo. Peyton Buckley, the reigning NSIC Defensive Newcomer of the Year, secured seven tackles with three of them marked as tackles for a loss including a sack. Haden Wallace matched Buckley with seven tackles. Limburg was perfect in point-after attempts at 4-of-4.
 
Augustana totaled 320 yards of offense while holding Concordia-St. Paul to 266 yards. The top defense against the rush in 2021, Augustana held CSP to 68 yards on the ground to open the 2022 season. Defensively, Brayden Hilgemann led the Golden Bears with eight tackles and a sack.
 
Augustana makes its 2022 home debut Saturday, Sept. 10, hosting Bemidji State. The contest is the annual Be Bold, Wear Gold game in a partnership between Augiethon and the Sanford Health Foundation in support of Cure Kids Cancer. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m.
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