On Saturday, Sept. 27, the Vikings took on the Millikin Big Blue at home as a crowd of families and alums watched on as they celebrated Augustana’s homecoming. The win comes at a time early enough in the season that a win is far from crucial, but the Vikings wanted to show that this year is not like last.
The scoring started early for the Vikings after their first drive looked to have stalled out. The ensuing punt was muffed by the Big Blue and picked up by sophomore center Travis Kenzevich on Augie’s 31-yard line. It took just two plays for sophomore quarterback Jimmy Makuh to find his most familiar target, senior Breyden Smith, for a Vikings touchdown. With the extra point, the Vikings were up 7-0 quickly.
Following a tough loss to Wheaton, where the offense had difficulties getting going, the Vikings knew they would need their offense to find its groove early and often. Senior tight end Jake Miller thinks there’s no better way to do that than to look towards athletes like Smith.
“The plan of attack is to get the ball to our athletes in space and let them work,” Miller said. “It’s the best way to win. Just get it to your athletes and let them do their thing.”
The athletes stayed busy on offense after the Vikings defense stifled the first Millikin drive, forcing a three-and-out and giving the ball right back to Augustana. Makuh worked efficiently. On the first play of the drive, he found wide receiver Ethan Vrabec for a 35-yard gain before giving the ball to another one of his athletes, senior back Ben Ludlum, for a 6-yard touchdown. After just five minutes, the Vikings had a 14-0 lead.
After back-to-back scoring drives, the Vikings found themselves in position to run away with this one, but Millikin wasn’t going down without a fight.
The Big Blue proceeded to march 75 yards down the field, taking over eight minutes off the clock in large part thanks to a run game that has gotten them off to their 2-0 start. They finally tacked six on the board after a 1-yard rush up the middle from First-Year phenom Re’John Zeno, but six is all they would get after the extra point was blocked by junior Zach Gray, halting the score at 14-6.
Even after letting up a touchdown, the defense refused to go down, and that’s demonstrating the fight and consistency that Coach Bell has been searching for. The Vikings have let up 91 points over two games, and if the defense is looking to claw back after a slow start, they certainly made a move in the right direction.
“We’ve got to up the ante, defensively,” Bell said. “We’ve given up way too many points, and we let teams get out of easy situations. But as long as everybody’s on the same page, we’re okay. That communication is critical on the defensive side of the ball.”
The score would remain 14-6 for the remainder of the first quarter and most of the second, but that would change after junior back Josh Lim punched in a 4-yard touchdown, and First-Year kicker Jacob Garbett was good from 45 yards out to make it an 18-point lead.
With the first half in the books and a healthy lead to show for it, it’s easy to credit the offense for a great showing, but the Vikings’ defense came in prepared to take on Millikin, and it showed. Sophomore defensive back Cole Schroeder points to that preparation as the reason for their success.
“Obviously, they run some different things, but I think we’re more prepared than we’ve been in the past couple weeks,” Schroeder said. “We’re prepared for this team, and we put in the time at practice, we’ve put in time with extra film, so I think we’re ready.”
The second half went off without a hitch, with the Vikings scoring for the final time less than three minutes into the third quarter after another Lim touchdown, this one from 20 yards out. The defense held the Big Blue scoreless in the second half, and the horn sounded to mark a 33-6 victory.
Now sitting at 2-1 with another homecoming win under their belt, the Vikings have the rest of the season to focus on. But as junior receiver Mikey Brosnan said, focusing on the whole season at a time doesn’t make a team better. Chasing the day does.
“The motto this year has been ‘The Chase, ’” Brosnan said. “All year, we’ve been thinking about how we want to chase teams, like we wanted to beat Millikin, but Breyden [Smith] said something great at practice, how instead of chasing those teams, we need to chase the day. We need to chase the next play, chase that mindset to have that winning attitude.”
