The Vikings football team avoided defeat in their road game against Millikin University Big Blue, winning with the score of 24-20 on Saturday, Sept. 28. This win pushed their overall record to 2-1 and secured their first conference win, helping their record in conference play to 1-1.

Going into the game, the team was looking to bounce back from their last game, a 42-3 loss against Wheaton College. One statistic head coach Steve Bell wanted to work on was the offense converting on third-down opportunities. Last week, the team only converted five out of fourteen third-down scenarios. 

“If you look at the film, there were opportunities to stay on the field offensively and the defense to get off the field, but we didn’t take advantage of those,” Bell said. “A part of that is maybe we didn’t protect well enough in a third-down situation, or maybe our quarterback was getting outside himself and not fully going through the scheme. You go back on the film, look and try to correct those things, and hopefully, they don’t show up again.”

Millikin’s record before the game sat at 0-2, but the record isn’t the whole story. When watching the film to study the opponent, senior Arik Mistak recognizes that a team’s win-loss record does not reveal everything. As a running back, he sees in the film that Millikin is much more than a winless team.

“I’ve noticed Millikin has some big guys,” Mistak said. “They have two linebackers around 220 pounds, and we don’t see that every week. They also play hard, but they [have] had some tough losses.”

To start the game, the Augustana defense stopped Millikin on the first drive and blocked the ensuing punt, which allowed the Vikings’ offense to score quickly and take a 7-0 lead. Despite a sluggish rest of the first half that allowed Millikin to claim a 13-10 lead before halftime, Fifth-year Cole Bhardwaj knew the first drive was critical in keeping the team in the game.

“That first drive is everything,” Bhardwaj said. “Both teams are pretty hyped up for the game to go, and for us to stop and then go and score on that first drive was big. We thought that was a tone-setter to start the game.”

In the third quarter, the Augie defense locked down and held Millikin to only 35 yards the entire quarter. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, senior Mike DiGioia ran in a 20-yard touchdown to reclaim the lead for the Vikings, 17-13. 

“The defense played a phenomenal third quarter, followed by us scoring to take the lead, so you could feel that momentum shift slightly,” Bhardwaj said. “Going into that fourth quarter, we had been down pretty much the entire game, and then we were able to come back and take the lead for the first time.”

The Augie defense came up big again in the middle of the fourth quarter when they stopped Millikin at the goal line to regain possession. On the ensuing offensive play for the Vikings, a fumble led to a touchdown recovery for the Big Blue, giving them the lead 20-17. The pivotal play came when junior Breyden Smith returned a Millikin punt 52 yards for a touchdown. With a 24-20 lead and 4 minutes left, the Vikings never looked back and held on to secure a victory. 

“Seeing that brings me to the kind of corny saying, ‘big-time players make big-time plays,’ and that’s what Breyden Smith did,” Bhardwaj said. “We knew we had the lead, and our defense knew that if they just kept playing the way they had been the second half, we would win the game.”

The Vikings’ defense recorded four sacks, one of which sealed the game and added two interceptions. In their next game, the team will face off against conference opponent North Park University for a homecoming game showdown on Saturday, Oct. 5.