SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The No. 18-ranked Augustana football team (1-1 overall, 1-0 NSIC) opens its home slate on Saturday afternoon against Northern State (0-3, 0-2). Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m.
 
Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app, presented by The Original Pancake House. The app can be downloaded in the app store or Google Play.
 
About the Game
The Vikings will open the 15th season at Kirkeby-Over Stadium when the ball is kicked off Saturday. Since the opening, Augustana is 11-3 in home openers and 56-25 overall at 'KO'. The Vikings enter Saturday on a 14-game win streak against Northern State. The last time the two teams met, Jarod Epperson ran for 172 yards, pushing him over 3,000 in his career, in a 31-21 victory in Aberdeen last November. The last time the teams played in Sioux Falls was September 24, 2022 when Matt Francis caught four passes for 31 yards and a touchdown in a victory. 

About the Wolves
The Wolves enter the week 0-3 overall and 0-2 in the NSIC after falling 17-14 on a late field goal against Minot State.

The Northern State offense is powered by the dual-threat of Daniel Britt. The junior has thrown for 212 yards on a 65% clip while running for 163 yards and a touchdown. Hank Kraft will assist in the backfield, racking up 179 yards on the ground and catching six passes for 29 yards.

The Wolves have been gashed on the ground but have held steady through three games. The Wolves have given up just 84.0 passing yards per game, fourth lowest total in the country, but also give up 216.7 rushing yards per game, putting them in the bottom 20.

Jake Adams has racked up 36 total tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss, both team-bests. Kegan Mountain has the only interception for the Wolves and three different players, including Adams, have recorded a sack. 

About the Vikings
A total of 19,376 fans watched the Augustana Viking football team prove that they can compete with the best after falling 24-3 against back-to-back defending FCS National Champion South Dakota State. The attendance was the second largest crowd in the history of Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings, S.D. Defenses stood tall for two of the top defenses at their respective levels.

The Vikings picked off a pair of passes, one by Logan Leonard and one by Peyton Buckley, from reigning FCS Player of the Year Mark Gronowski while bottling him up throughout the night. Leonard led all players with 10 tackles including seven solo. Buckley added eight and Haden Wallace totaled seven.

Although the Vikings fell in a competitive contest against back-to-back defending FCS National Champion SDSU, they fell four spots to No. 18 in the AFCA Top 25.

Augustana rank 13th in the country with 3.0 sacks per game. They're also one of 40 teams to not lose a fumble and one of 12 not to allow a fourth down conversion on at least three attempts. 

Four different Vikings have seen action at quarterback through three games. Gunnar Hensley went 14 for 18 with 219 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the opener against UMary and Evan Bearth threw for 92 yards on just eight completions against SDSU. The only QB to play in both games is junior Thomas Scholten, who has completed a team-high 17 passes. Mack Molander entered Saturday's game for a single snap. 

One Last Thing
Jarod Epperson has run for 3,240 yards in his career, third most among active DII players and in Augustana history and six yards behind Dajon Newell for second. He is also one of five players in Division II with over 4,000 all-purpose yards.

--GoAugie.com--