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WOLVES
FALL SHORT AT AUGUSTANA
September
7, 2002
SIOUX
FALLS, SD: The Northern State football team gave themselves
every opportunity to put a notch in the win column Saturday
as they faced off against Augustana in Sioux Falls. Instead,
the Wolves suffered a season-opening 14-6 loss to the Vikings
just missing on some late-game scoring opportunities that
could have sent the game to OT.
The Wolves
fell behind early when Augie went on an 11 play, 87 yard drive
capped by a Ryan DeGraff to Casey Meile 5-yard touchdown pass
with 6:37 left in the opening period.
But NSU
responded just three minutes later, when Wolves' quarterback
Jake Parten found a wide open Matt Pinto behind the Augustana
secondary and hit him for a 75-yard touchdown strike to pull
the Wolves within one. The PAT was blocked and the Vikings
held on to a one-point lead.
Augustana
punched in their final scoring play of the day when they drove
78 yards in 16 plays and Nathan Waller ran in an 8-yard play
to put the Vikings up 14-6 with 10:17 to go in the half.
The defenses
controlled the game from then to the half and AC went to the
locker room up by eight.
NSU's
defense looked strong in the second half, holding Augustana
scoreless for the final two quarters and giving the offense
a chance to strike.
The fourth
quarter saw NSU miss on a few scoring chances when the Wolves'
defense forced two Viking turnovers and held AC on every drive.
NSU was able to drive to the Augustana 9-yard line when running
back Ronnie Cruz ran for a one-yard gain and Parten threw
three incomplete passes in a row to stall the drive at the
eight.
Augustana
led the game in total offense 343 to NSU's 22 yards. The Wolves
led in the passing attack throwing for 147 yards on the day.
Ronnie
Cruz led NSU on the ground as he managed 59 yards on 13 carries.
Parten was 10-for-29 for 147 yards and one TD while Matt Pinto
posted 83 receiving yards on two receptions and one TD.
NSU will
host St. Cloud State next Saturday at 7 p.m. The game will
be played at NSU's Swisher Field in Aberdeen.
For complete
statistics, please see the NSU Football statistics link.
-NSU-
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