Box Score

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Sophomore wide receiver Dylan Wheeler (St. Paul, Minn./Mounds View) and his Saint John's University teammates entered play Saturday afternoon (Sept. 30) knowing they'd be facing a much-improved opponent.

This was far from the same Augsburg team the Johnnies outscored by a margin of 95-0 the past two seasons. So it came as no surprise when SJU found itself in a dogfight.

But, in the end, it was the play of Wheeler and the offense that helped the Johnnies – ranked No. 7 in the nation in the most recent D3football.com Division III top 25 poll – hold off the upset-minded Auggies, emerging with a 27-24 victory in MIAC action at a sunny and sweltering Edor Nelson Field.

"They have a great team this season," said Wheeler, who finished with a career-high eight catches for 85 yards and two touchdowns. "They've improved a lot from last year. They have a strong defense and a really explosive offense.

"They made things tough on us today."



Indeed, the Auggies marched 97 yards in 12 plays on their opening possession to score on an 11-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Cade Sheehan to wide receiver Dominic Smith that put Augsburg in front 6-0 early (marking the first points the Auggies had scored against the Johnnies since 2019).

Then, after a 64-yard touchdown catch by senior wideout Nick VanErp (Battle Lake, Minn./Ottertail Central) and a 4-yard touchdown catch by Wheeler put SJU in front 14-6 at halftime, the Auggies closed the gap to 14-12 on a 2-yard touchdown run by Tre Lee at the 9:12 mark of the third quarter.

But the Johnnies answered right back on their next possession, going in front 20-12 on a 24-yard scoring strike from senior quarterback Aaron Syverson (Minnetonka, Minn.) to Wheeler.

"We always want to score as many points as we can," Wheeler said. "We know we have a great defense. Sometimes the other team is going to put up some points and sometimes they won't. But, no matter what happens, we know we have to do our job as an offense as well."

Which SJU did again after a 7-yard touchdown pass from Sheehan to Tyrone Nelson cut the gap to 20-18 early in the fourth quarter. This time, it was junior wide receiver Marselio Mendez (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) who came up big, taking a short pass from Syverson and scampering 47 yards for a touchdown that extended the Johnnies' lead to 27-18 with 10:11 to play.

"Every time they could have gotten the momentum, we came back and scored - usually on a fairly big play," said SJU head coach Gary Fasching, whose team improved to 2-0 in the MIAC and 3-1 overall. "That's a credit to our offensive coaches – (offensive coordinator) Kole (Heckendorf) and (offensive assistant) Josh (Bungum) - for putting together a great game plan, then to our guys for executing when they had to.

"Aaron hit some really nice passes on big plays where he had to pick up much-needed first downs. There was no doubt the offense carried us today."

Syverson finished 25 of 37 passing for a career-high 367 yards and four touchdowns. VanErp finished with four catches for 108 yards, Mendez had three catches for 86 yards and senior tight end Alex Larson (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) ended with seven receptions for 53 yards.

"I think the biggest improvement for them this year is their defense," said Fasching of an Augsburg team that is now 1-1 in MIAC play and 3-1 overall. "They played very well defensively and kind of forced us into a spread where we couldn't try to run the football very much."

And Augsburg did not quit, scoring on a 13-yard touchdown catch by junior Tyrique Givance with 3:39 to go to pull within three. But, on the game's final drive, Syverson connected with Wheeler for 26 yards and Larson for a gain of seven on 3rd-and-7 at the Auggies' 33 to run out the clock.

"We believe in our boys on the other side of the ball," senior cornerback Cayden Saxon (Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins) said. "We want to go out there and hold the team to as few points as possible. But we know our offense is going to light up the scoreboard and make plays."

The Augsburg offense was impressive as well, though, piling up a total of 405 total yards. Sheehan finished 23 of 35 passing for 214 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 48 yards. The Auggies finished 5 of 7 on fourth-down conversion attempts, though the SJU defense did make the fourth-down stop that counted most when senior Joe Akoh (Hugo, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) and junior Zach Frank (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) stopped Lee for no gain on 4th-and-goal at the SJU 1-yard line late in the first half.

"They had a great game plan (offensively)," Fasching said. "They kind of slowed things down with a lot of short stuff. Their quarterback, Cade Sheehan, played really, really well. He's one of the better quarterbacks in our league and he showed that today. He's smart, he can throw and he has that added ability of being able to run with the football and break contain. 

"That's really tough on defenses."

Yet the Johnnies also hurt their own cause at times. SJU was penalized 10 times for 83 yards, a number of those calls coming in crucial situations that kept Augsburg drives alive.

"We weren't very good defensively today," Fasching said. "But again, you have to give credit to the opponent. They have a great offense with some very talented receivers. They run the ball well and their people up front were able to open some holes. 

"But we did give them some breaks. Our penalties came at inopportune times. Not that there ever is a good time for them, but they really hurt us today. We can't have that. Those are mental mistakes. We kept their drives alive and they took advantage of it."

Still, the Johnnies came out on top and remain undefeated in MIAC action headed into the last of their cross-divisional matchups against Concordia (2-2, 1-1 MIAC) at 1 p.m. next Saturday, Oct. 7, in Clemens Stadium.

"We need to learn from the mistakes we made today and come out next week ready to play," Wheeler said. "This was a good team, but we were able to get out of here with a win. Now we have to keep the momentum going."

Big Day for #6
The career-best 367 passing yards served as the sixth 300-yard passing game of Syverson's SJU career and first this fall. He has now passed for four touchdowns in three of the Johnnies' four games this season and is now 20-3 as a starting quarterback. 

Four With Double-Digit Tackles
Four Johnnies totaled 10 tackles or more on the afternoon, led by junior linebacker Cooper Yaggie (Breckenridge, Minn.) and his 13 stops (four solo). Senior linebacker Erik Bjork (Mahtomedi, Minn.), who missed the first half of Saturday's game following his targeting penalty issued in the fourth quarter of Sept. 23's 27-7 win over then-No. 18 Bethel, finished with 11 tackles (seven solo) and a sack. Junior linebacker Hayden Sanders (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Champlin Park) registered 12 tackles (five solo) and sophomore safety Noah Arneson (Independence, Minn./Orono) added 10 (six solo).

Limited Possessions
SJU (8) and Augsburg (7) combined for 15 offensive possessions on the day. The Johnnies' consisted of two punts, four touchdowns and ended each half with the football. The Auggies, meanwhile, punted once and turned the ball over on downs twice in addition to their four scores.

And the Time of Possession
The game's time of possession was an even 38:00-22:00 split in favor of the home team. The 22 minutes of possession were SJU's fewest since Sept. 23, 2017: 21:12 in a 20-17 loss to St. Thomas at Target Field.