SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The No. 11 Augustana football team continues its homestand Saturday with the 'Key to the City' game. The Vikings host the Cougars of Sioux Falls at 1 p.m. The first 3,000 fans will receive a rally pom courtesy of game sponsor Midco.
 
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
The visiting Cougars travel just a short eight blocks to Kirkeby-Over Stadium (just two blocks separate the edge of the two campuses) for the annual contest with a key to the city of Sioux Falls on the line.
 
The key trophy in the "Key to the City" game is a four-foot-tall key that was carved from an Aspen tree from the family farm of Arne Bortnem, a 1965 Augustana graduate. The traveling trophy is one of five active trophies played for in NSIC rivalries. The 'key' debuted in 2012, the first meeting between the two schools in 26 years.
 
About the Cougars
Sioux Falls is coming off a 34-31 win over Minnesota Duluth to move to 4-0 on the season. In what was a tight game throughout, the Cougars never led by more than a single score and trailed as late as 46 seconds to go in the game. The game-winning touchdown was a two-yard run from Thuro Reisdorfer, capping an 11-play, 80-yard drive.
 
The Sioux Falls offense runs through Reisdorfer as he leads the NSIC and ranks fifth in NCAA DII with seven rushing touchdowns and ranks second in the league with 121.5 yards per game. He averages nearly six yards per carry at 5.9. Adam Mullen is the only quarterback to have taken snaps for USF as he has completed 60.3 percent of his passes with four touchdowns and four interceptions. He averages 225.3 yards passing per game. His top receiver is Ethan Wittenburg at 68.7 yards per game with an average of four completions per game. However, it's Hunter Schneider who leads with the most touchdown receptions with both of his catches in 2022 going for six points.
 
Defensively, the Cougars give up 265 yards per game, 69.8 on the ground and 195.2 through the air. Cameron Alfaro is the leading tackler with 16 tackles in 2022 while a total of eight Cougars have 10 or more tackles. Zach Durfee leads the way in terms of tackles for loss and sacks at six. It's worth noting that four of those came against MSU Moorhead.
 
About the Vikings
After Augustana's 21-13 win over Northern State this past Saturday, the Vikings are 4-0 and hold a No. 11 ranking from the AFCA. Although it wasn't the prettiest of offensive performances, the Vikings got the job done including a 32-yard touchdown rush from David Addo who ended with a game-high 60 yards rushing. The separator in the game was a defensive touchdown after a strip-sack from Ben Kemp and a recovery from Grayson Diepenbrock.
 
For the season, the Vikings pound the ground game for 181.5 yards per outing, led by Jarod Epperson's 81 yards per game. Through the air, Augustana averages 171.8 yards as Thomas Scholten started his second-straight game, and played the majority of his third contest, tossing for 198.3 yards. Devon Jones is the top target with 11 receptions while Jack Fisher leads the way with three touchdowns. Matt Francis, along with Jones, has two touchdown receptions while Mitchell Goodbary has a touchdown from the tight end position.
 
T.J. Liggett leads the defensive unit with 29 tackles, 19 solo and 10 assisted. Peyton Buckley owns a pair of interceptions to go with his 26 tackles and four pass breakups. More on him later (again), but Grayson Diepenbrock leads Au with 7.5 tackles for loss, tallying up 41 yards in the process.
 
Who to Watch For
This space was used for Grayson Diepenbrock a week ago, and it will be used for Grayson Diepenbrock yet again. The senior lived up to his billing for attacking the pass rush with yet another sack, his sixth of the season and three quarterback hurries in the victory over Northern State. He leads the NSIC in sacks with six while that number is just two shy of the single-season school record. He is also 1.5 sacks shy of tying the program record of sacks in a season held by Craig Bosch with 23.
 
His average of 1.5 sacks per game this year ranks him third in all of NCAA Division II while his 1.9 tackle for loss average places him 19^th in the nation.
 
Year 100 Tidbit
Augustana and Sioux Falls have met 27 times over the years with the initial meeting being a Nov. 4, 1922 showdown. That was a 13-10 Augustana victory, starting a string of 18-straight victories for AU in the series. In all, Augustana has seven shutout wins while never having been shutout itself. The smallest margin of victory for AU was a 6-4 win in 1932 while the largest margin being a 46-0 shutout in 1936.
 
One Last Thing
Augustana is sixth in all of NCAA Division II with a pair of defensive touchdowns. In the home opener on Sept. 10, Peyton Buckley returned an interception for a touchdown. The interception was the first of the year for Buckley as he scampered 21 yards into the end zone. In the season's second home contest, Grayson Diepenbrock recovered a fumble and took it four yards for a touchdown. The touchdown was the second of his career with the first coming in the 2018 season.