Augie's Barnes earns 100th career victory

Font Size:

Staff report | Saturday, October 4, 2008 8:02 PM CDT | () comments

ELMHURST, Ill. — A sturdy defense and resilient offense Saturday allowed Augustana to present coach Jim Barnes with the 100th victory of his career, a 42-6 win at Elmhurst.

The Vikings limited the Bluejays to 26 yards rushing and used the 15 of 18 passing of senior quarterback Tim Podulka to earn the win in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin opener for both teams.

“Reaching 100 does cause you to pause and reflect back on a lot of the guys I’ve coached with and learned from and remember all of the guys who have played on our teams both at Augustana and Wooster,” said Barnes, 100-37 in 14 seasons as a head coach.

“Elmhurst is close to my family home, and I had some of my better college games here, so to win the 100th here and to win it while coaching at my alma mater is kind of neat.”

Mostly, Barnes appreciated the way Augustana played.

“That was the main thing to get off to a good start in the CCIW, and we did that. We were buoyed by our defensive play again,” Barnes said. “Our punting game frequently left a long field for Elmhurst and in the fourth quarter we were able to force some turnovers that allowed us to secure the win.”

Augustana (3-1, 1-0 CCIW) forced four Bluejays turnovers in the game and turned three in the fourth quarter — a Jake Snider fumble recovery and interceptions by Billy Lynch and Ben Hall — into points that allowed the Vikings to pull away from a 21-6 lead.

Elmhurst (3-1, 0-1) watched Augustana build its early lead after a fumble at the Bluejays’ 16-yard line ended the Vikings second series of the game. Augustana answered with scoring drives of 92, 75 and 80 yards.

The first two came during the opening half and ended with a 10-yard touchdown run by Podulka and a 7-yard pass to Henry Deters by Podulka, who also led the Vikings with 60 rushing yards despite not feeling on top of his game.

“Our offensive line did a good job of protecting him, and Tim has an uncanny knack of finding the open receiver,” Barnes said. “He had the flu most of the week, and I’m sure there was some discomfort there. He probably attempted more passes today than he did all week in practice, but that says something about the way he competes.”

Josh Galliart extended the Vikings’ 14-0 halftime lead with a 2-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter, preceding touchdown runs by Jake Parke, Deters and Robert Wood that came after Chris Kudyba inched Elmhurst within a 21-6 score with a 14-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter.

The points were the first allowed in the second half this season by Augustana, which has allowed just 25 points through four games.