Augustana jumped out early and never looked back, handing Millikin a 33-6 Collegiate Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin loss and reminding The Big Blue just how tough it is to compete in the CCIW.
Millikin football fell to 2-1 on the season and 1-1 in the CCIW with the loss.
Millikin looked solid in its first two games but just fell flat Saturday.
“This is a bad taste in our mouth; nobody likes it,” quarterback Sylas Gomez said.
Gomez finished 20-27 from the air for 171 yards. The offense only put up a total of 236 yards, the lowest for Millikin football this season.
The Augie’s pressured Gomez all day, beating the offensive line consistently and recording five sacks and eight tackles for loss.
“I mean, we’re banged up up front, so I need to get the ball out quicker,” Gomez said. “Help my guys up front. Something we can fix for sure.”
Millikin’s defense also struggled against the Vikings.
Augustana put up 322 total yards and four touchdowns. The Vikings were able to develop a run game behind players Josh Lim and Ben Ludlum, who helped the Vikings to 128 rushing yards.
“We gave [the defense] poor field position offensively, and we hada lack of difference-making on special teams,” coach Billy Riebock said. “Really terrible tackling.
“We have to keep emphasizing tackling, working it, and use this to fuel us going into this week.”
An emphasis last week in practice was on fixing some issues on the special teams. Millikin’s special teams suffered another rough appearance, with a muffed punt, a blocked PAT, and a missed punt snap leading to a safety.
“We gotta keep getting better,” Riebock said. “It’s an issue, which we know we gotta fix.”
Millikin also played a physical game today, leading to many injuries. An important one was running back Re’John Zeno. He suffered an apparent leg injury early in the game and was sidelined for the remaining time. But Millikin football players have said they are prepared and ready.
“That’s what coach has been teaching us since fall camp, the next man up mentality,” offensive lineman Sean Goodrum said. “It’s always been instilled in us this season, next week hopefully, Re’John comes back to us, but we’ve got some backs in the locker room we can trust.”
The Big Blue host Carroll University on Saturday, and hope to rebound and pull off a Homecoming victory.
“We’re not going down the same rabbit hole as we did the last 2 years. “Homecoming will be our game.”
Goodrum agreed.
“We’ll see everybody next week against Carroll,” Goodrum said.
Kickoff is at 1 p.m.
