Piper football drops season finale to Augsburg

The Hamline University football team fell to visiting Augsburg 45-14 on Saturday, finishing the season at 3-7 (1-7 MIAC).

Augsburg handled all of the scoring in the first half, scoring three touchdowns and a field goal. Their lone score in the first quarter came on a 25-yard pass from Jordan Berg (Jr., Gaylord, Minn.) to Clint Donovan (Fy, Solon, Iowa) seven minutes into the game.

Jack Christopherson (Fy., Maple Grove, Minn.) got the Auggies scoring started in the second quarter with a 31-yard field goal kick. Christopherson’s point-after attempts were also successful after each Augsburg touchdown in the first half.

Jason Potts’ (Jr., Plymouth, Minn.) two-yard run and Royce Winford’s (Jr., Brooklyn Park, Minn.) 53-yard reception from Berg gave Augsburg the 24-0 lead heading into halftime. Augsburg scored the first two touchdowns in the third quarter on a second two-yard rush by Potts and a 13-yard pass from Berg to Muneer Al-Hameed (Fy., Woodbury, Minn.).

Hamline’s first touchdown came with six minutes remaining in the quarter on a one-yard run by Mark Masso (Fy., Farmington, Minn.) for his fifth touchdown on the ground this fall. Winford pulled in another long pass for a 23-yard touchdown reception, as Augsburg answered the score a minute later to bring the score to 45-7.

Junior quarterback James Leary gave the Pipers a second touchdown on a six-yard pass to Sean Lewis (So., Minneapolis, Minn.). The touchdown was Lewis’ sixth this season.

Masso finished the season as the Pipers' leading rusher with 633 yards. The leading receiver for Hamline this season was Andrew Seymour (Sr., Sandstone, Minn.) who had 446 yards.

Hamline University belongs to the NCAA Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, one of the most competitive conferences in the nation. Hamline supports 19 intercollegiate athletic teams for men and women. Find out more about Hamline athletics at www.hamline.edu/athletics.

Creative and innovative teaching and learning attract a diverse student body of nearly 4,600 undergraduate and graduate students to Hamline University. Challenged to create and apply knowledge in local and global contexts, Hamline students develop an individual and community ethic of social justice, civic responsibility, and inclusive leadership and service.

Ranked first in Minnesota among comprehensive master’s universities by U.S.News & World Report, Hamline is also Minnesota’s first university, founded in 1854, and among the first co-educational institutions in the nation.