SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The No. 13 Augustana football team is back home Saturday to host Northern State. The contest begins at 1 p.m. Parking lots to Kirkeby-Over Stadium open at 8 a.m. including the First PREMIER Tailgate (west) parking lot. Parking is free to A-Club members with their passes (if applicable) and only $10 per spot for the public.
 
The contest, sponsored by First Bank & Trust, is the Hall of Fame Game and Military Appreciation. The South Dakota National Guard will have a static display of equipment. At halftime, the Augustana Athletics Hall of Fame Class will be introduced to the crowd.
 
Tickets to the contest are available at GoAugie.com/Tickets. Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app. The app can be downloaded in the app store or Google Play.
 
About the Game
Northern State visits Kirkeby-Over Stadium for the first time since 2016 which was a 37-34 Augustana victory. The two squads last met in 2018 in Aberdeen which was a 42-21 Augustana victory. The Vikings have won 12-straight in the series and are 17-1-1 against Northern in Sioux Falls.  
 
About the Wolves
Northern State holds a 2-1 record after staving off a comeback attempt by Minnesota State this past Saturday. The Wolves opened a 23-0 lead on the Mavericks before MSU stormed back with 22-straight points including a blocked punt in the end zone for a safety. On the ensuing drive, Ar'Shon Willis intercepted a pass at the NSU 33-yard line to seal the victory for NSU.
 
The interception by Willis has been a trend by Northern all year as the Wolves are No. 3 in NCAA DII with six interceptions, tops in the NSIC. The defense also styles up with the Vikings as the Wolves allow 61.7 rushing yards per game, a mark that is ninth in the nation. The scoring defense is 11th in the country by allowing 11.7 points per outing. Ian Marshall is third in the country with 9.5 tackles for loss.
 
Offensively, the wolves have trotted out a pair of quarterbacks with Michael Bonds completing 44-of-69 passes for three touchdowns and Will Madler completing 18-of-42 passes for one touchdown. Bonds averages 128.3 yards per game while Madler tosses for just shy of 60 yards. Three receivers have 11 or more receptions, led by Dominick Fiscelli with 14 receptions and 134 yards.
 
Much like the quarterback situation, the rushing attack comes from multiple legs as four different backs total 21 or more yards per game. That is led by Isaiah Cherrier and his 30.6 yards per outing. Madler, the quarterback, is second on the team with 29 yards rushing while Brett Brenton totals 26.7 yards. The Wolves have two rushing touchdowns, one from Madler and one from Brenton.
 
About the Vikings
Augustana holds a 3-0 record and is ranked No. 13 in the AFCA Top-25 (more on that below). The Vikings are coming off a 31-7 win at MSU Moorhead, a contest that was never in doubt. In his first-career start, Thomas Scholten tossed for 260 yards and a pair of touchdowns while Jarod Epperson racked up 115 yards rushing. He tore off an 80-yard run for a touchdown and ran to the tune of 9.6 yards per carry.
 
The Vikings defense held the Dragons to just a single yard rushing and allowed just the one score, a late touchdown as the fourth quarter was winding down. Peyton Buckley again led the Vikings with nine tackles, eight solo, while true freshman TJ Murray recorded four tackles. Grayson Diepenbrock recorded three sacks while Myles Taylor added a fourth.
 
Scholten, now having seen action in essentially a game and a half of football, has tossed for 462 yards while completing 62.9 percent of his pass attempts. The leading receiver, receptions wise, is Devon Jones and his 10 catches for 102 yards. Mitchell Goodbary is the leading receiver yards wise, hauling in nine passes for 146 yards.
 
T.J. Liggett is the overall leader in tackles with 22 in 2022. He has accounted for 14 solo tackles and eight assisted tackles and three tackles for loss. Buckey is just behind with 21 tackles, 16 marked as solo with three tackles for loss, three pass breakups and an interception.
 
Who to Watch For
Diepenbrock was purposefully saved for this section. He is the reigning NSIC Defensive Player of the Week after his three sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss performance on Saturday. The thing is, that wasn't an anomaly. He has five sacks on the season, totaling 32 yards lost for opponents. He has two forced fumbles and two quarterback hurries.
 
But we want to dig deeper on the sack total. The Augustana single-season record for sacks is eight. That mark was set in 1985 by Devon Bartscher. The eight-sack total has been a stopping point as that mark has been tied not once, but four times. Tony Adkins (1986), Lee Pulse (1992 & 1993) and Jamal Samaha (2015) have all recorded eight sacks in a season but haven't been able to surpass it. Just three games into 2022 with (at least) eight games to play, is this the year that record falls?
 
Year 100 Tidbit
Augustana claimed its second North Central Conference Championship in 1959 with a 4-1-1 NCC record. The Vikings opened NCC action with a 22-all tie with North Dakota, fell to South Dakota then followed with four-straight wins to claim the championship. The wins were a 13-0 shutout of South Dakota State, 7-6 win over Iowa State Teachers (now Northern Iowa), 27-21 victory over Morningside and a 34-14 thumping of North Dakota State.
 
The Vikings had four members named All-NCC led by quarterback Jim Luce. In addition, LeRoy Anderberg, Dale Johannson and John Simko were placed on the team. Luce and Simko were noted to have rewritten the passing records at Augustana, although no data was available.
 
One Last Thing
Augustana has been steadily climbing the polls throughout the first three weeks of the season. In the AFCA Coaches' Poll, Augustana is ranked No. 13, the highest since earning a No. 6 ranking in the final poll of the 2010 season. In the D2Football.com poll, Augustana is No. 10. Last season, Augustana was as high as No. 14 in the AFCA poll and No. 12 in the D2 Football poll.