John Kipper, Staff Writer

After a tough 14-11 loss to conference opponent Hamline University (7-0, 9-4 overall) last Thursday, the Auggies had a quick one-day rest before heading to Dubuque, Iowa, to play Loras College whom they demolished 20-5 on Saturday. Following that win, the team bussed another 120 miles south to Monmouth, Illinois, to play Monmouth College Sunday morning, and this produced a 16-3 blowout in favor of the Auggies.

Hamline is the top team in the conference right now, and they took an early 5-1 lead, but the Auggies managed to rally back to 10-6 at half. While Augsburg could overcome the deficit, they did outscore the Pipers 5-4. A lot of credit this game goes to the Hamline defense, which limited Augsburg’s offense to 14 shots on goal and was also disciplined enough to avoid taking any infractions which would have given AU a free position shot.

In Dubuque, the Auggies scored early and often, finding the back of the net 14 times in the first half. Seven different players scored with six of them scoring multiple goals. Defensively, the team harassed the Duhawks, limiting them to only nine shots on goal the entire game, forcing them into 22 turnovers.

Following the wins, Augsburg improved to 7-1 in conference play and 9-4 on the season. With three games left on the season before playoffs, the Auggies play conference bottom-feeder Benedictine University (1-5, 2-9 overall) before heading to Illinois to play fourth place Aurora University (5-2, 8-5) and third place Concordia-Wisconsin (7-1, 8-4).

This article first appeared in the Friday, April 20 edition of The Echo.