NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Behind a 196-yard, two-touchdown performance on the ground from sophomore Bryon Sauvy, the St. Olaf College football team wrapped up its season with a 41-26 victory over Augsburg University as part of Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championship Week on Saturday afternoon at Klein Field at Manitou.
Sauvy exploded for 196 yards and two touchdowns on 32 attempts to carry the load for St. Olaf (7-3, 5-3 MIAC), which avenged a 35-34 loss to Augsburg (4-6, 3-5 MIAC) when the teams met on Saturday, Oct. 26 in Minneapolis. The victory clinched the first seven-win season for the Oles since 2012.
Prior to the game, St. Olaf honored its 19 seniors and nine fifth-year seniors, as well as their families, on the field prior to the game as part of Senior Day.
Sauvy entered the game with just four carries for 19 yards in his young career before racking up the highest single-game rushing total by an Ole since Khayleb Willis '21 ran for 257 yards at Luther College on Sept. 14, 2019. The sophomore had two of St. Olaf's five rushing touchdowns in the win, as the Oles gained 238 of their 396 yards of total offense on the ground.
Senior Theo Doran also scored a pair of short touchdowns on the ground, while first year Kahlil Brown added a two-yard plunge for the first touchdown of his collegiate career. Doran was 5-for-12 passing for 158 yards, with all of the yardage going to either fifth-year senior Derek Hansen or senior Evan Hammonds. Hansen caught three passes for 88 yards, while Hammonds had two receptions for 70 yards.
Fifth-year senior Jacob Halek, junior Alijah Cruel, and sophomore Finn Qualls all picked off passes for the St. Olaf defense, which got a career-high 17 tackles from senior Tate Sauerwein. Sauerwein also had a sack, as did junior Noah Barrett to move his total to 7.5 on the season.
After receiving the opening kickoff, Augsburg marched 88 yards in 16 plays for the game's first points on a four-yard pass from Caden Rodkewich to Tyrone Wilson. St. Olaf quickly got down to the Auggies' one-yard line but coughed up the ball near the goal line to come away with no points.
The St. Olaf defense forced a turnover on downs on a fourth-and-one to get the ball back to the offense at the Augsburg 40-yard line. Doran hit Hammonds for a 39-yard gain down to the one-yard line before sneaking in from a yard out to tie the game at 7-7 late in the first.
Sauvy scored from five yards out for the first of his two touchdowns with 12:29 to go in the second quarter, but Augsburg answered with a 73-yard scoring drive capped by a one-yard run by Wilson to tie the game at 14-14. The Oles took a 21-14 lead into the locker room after Doran ran it in from two yards out with 3:27 left in the half.
St. Olaf put together the first of its four consecutive scoring drives on the opening possession of the third quarter with a 27-yard field goal by fifth-year senior Collin Swan after Sauvy started the drive with back-to-back 20-yard rushes. Cruel intercepted a pass on the second play of the ensuing possession, and the Oles needed just three plays to add seven points to their lead on a two-yard run by Brown.
Qualls' first-career interception set up the next St. Olaf touchdown, getting the ball to the offense near midfield to lead to a nine-yard touchdown run by Sauvy to make it 38-14 with 6:44 left in the third quarter. Augsburg scored on a 15-yard run by Wilson in the final 30 seconds of the third quarter, but the Oles got another field goal from Swan early in the fourth to go back up by three touchdowns. The Auggies got the final points of the game in the final minute on a 29-yard pass from Rodkewich to Tray Bogard-Merrick.
Sauvy's big game on the ground gets St. Olaf first seven-win season since 2012
/seasons/2024/boxscores/20241116_izeb.xml
2024
Augsburg
26
St. Olaf
41
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augsburg (4-6) | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 26 |
| St. Olaf (7-3) | 7 | 14 | 17 | 3 | 41 |
Nov 16, 2024