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Winter 1998, Vol. 60, No. 2

Many 'firsts' for Auggie football

Win MIAC, make playoffs

By Don Stoner

When Abner Batalden and Craig Peroutka posed together for a photograph before the Augsburg football team's regular season-ending game against Bethel in early November, a casual observer may not have believed that the two, so different in size, played the same positions during their college days - offensive lineman.

But Batalden and Peroutka will forever be linked in the annals of Augsburg's football history. Both played for Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship teams. Batalden played in 1928 and is the only surviving member of that team; Peroutka finished his junior season in 1997 - the only two seasons Augsburg has ever won MIAC gridiron titles. It was a magical

Offensive linemen from two eras -- Craig Peroutka from the 1997 Auggies and Abner Batalden, the last surviving member of the 1928 team.

season for the Auggies, who in addition to claiming the elusive MIAC title, earned a trip to the NCAA Division III national playoffs for the first time in school history, won a national playoff game and ended up as one of the final eight teams playing football at the Division III level in the entire nation. Along the way, the team broke countless school records, along with a lot of stereotypes about Augsburg football. Augsburg finished with a 10-2 record - the first time in school history that an Augsburg team has won that many games in a season (the previous school record was seven wins in 1973). The Auggies won nine games in a row, a school record-winning streak. The Auggies topped Concordia-Moorhead in the first game of the NCAA playoffs before falling to Simpson College of Iowa in the national quarterfinals. The 1997 season has marked the summit - so far - of the rebuilding program of head coach Jack Osberg, an Augsburg Hall of Famer as a player who was brought in to take over the program in 1991, following the Auggies' one-win campaign in 1990. The Auggies triumphed this season on the strength of their outstanding offense, most notably senior quarterback Derrin Lamker (Golden Valley/Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) and junior wide receiver Scott Hvistendahl (Cannon Falls/ Randolph HS).

Lamker, named the MIAC's Most Valuable Player this season by league coaches, now possesses virtually every Augsburg career and single-season passing record. Hvistendahl, who set the MIAC record for reception yards in a single season last year, shattered that record this season with a 1,273-yard effort in nine league games - as a point of reference, no other receiver in the conference had more than 776 reception yards.

The Auggies opened the season with a 24-20 victory over Valley City (N.D.) State, an NAIA playoff team in 1996. The first victory over a quality opponent put the spark of long-term success into some minds, which may have been squelched a bit when the Auggies, playing without the receiving services of Hvistendahl due to a shoulder injury, lost 28-12 at St. Thomas the following week. But then came St. John's, the MIAC's year-in, year-out juggernaut. On a magical Saturday night for the Auggies' home opener, a capacity crowd of more than 2,500 watched Augsburg dominate the game from start to finish, claiming a 20-10 victory, the first Augsburg win over St. John's in 17 seasons.

After that uplifting win, the magic continued to happen for the Auggies. The following week, another large crowd came to Anderson-Nelson Field to watch Augsburg score its first shutout over an opponent since 1981, when the Auggies blanked St. Olaf 42-0. A victory of 26-7 at Hamline followed the next week, and Homecoming weekend saw Augsburg rally from a 21-7 first-half deficit to topple Carleton 35-21. Jason Exley (Sr., Buffalo) tied a school record by intercepting three passes in a game.

The following week saw Augsburg drive to St. Peter to face Gustavus, and the Auggies had to rally from behind to score an important 41-35 victory in two overtimes. Down 32-24 with under three minutes to play in regulation, Hvistendahl caught a 65-yard touchdown pass from Lamker, and tight end Ted Schultz (Sr., Hudson, Wis.) caught a two-point conversion to tie the game. In the first overtime, kicker Martin Hlinka (Jr., Bratislava, Slovakia/Farmington HS) tied the game on a career-best 47-yard field goal, and running back Andrew Anthony (Sr., St. Peter), playing in his hometown, caught a 13-yard touchdown pass to secure the victory.

The game of the year may have been the Auggies' 13-10 win over conference co-leader Concordia-Moorhead on Oct. 25. The defensive struggle came down to the golden toe of Hlinka, who hit two field goals, including a 29-yarder with 17 seconds to play to put Augsburg into sole possession of first place in the MIAC.

Augsburg claimed a share of the MIAC championship with a 24-7 win at Macalester, and thrashed Bethel 56-21 at the Metrodome for the outright title.

The Auggies, as MIAC champions, were virtual locks to make the playoffs, but the NCAA threw the champs a curveball. Because of travel restrictions - and the fact that due to contract commitments, Augsburg had already inflated the seasonal air structure over Anderson-Nelson Field - the Auggies, the third seed in the West Region, had to travel to face their MIAC rivals, fourth-seed Concordia-Moorhead, at the Fargodome in Fargo, N.D., for the first round of the NCAA Division III national playoffs. But playing in the lair of their opponents did nothing to faze the maroon and gray. Augsburg scored 27 straight points in a three-quarter stretch to build a lead, and held on defensively to produce a 34-22 victory. But, like all magical things, the magic had to run out on the Augsburg story sometime. It did on a rainy, sloppy late November afternoon in Indianola, Iowa, when second-seed Simpson College dispatched the Auggies 61-21. It was an incredible season for Augsburg football, but can a championship happen again? Possibly. The Auggies only lose 10 players to graduation, and the foundation is there for another run at the MIAC title next year. Sixty-nine years will likely never again separate MIAC football titles at Augsburg College.

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