ARDEN HILLS, Minn. - On what looked to be a day with nearly unplayable weather, the Royals defeated Augsburg College 19-6. With the win the Royals secured their 2010 regular season record at 9-1 overall and 7-1 in the MIAC. Now the Royals will await the verdict of the NCAA selection committee who will announce on Sunday which teams are in the playoff and where they will play.
Work began early Saturday morning to begin clearing the field at Royal Stadium of thick wet snow. The snow showers began over night and had accumulated over 6" of snow before kickoff. The weather system continued to produce snow through out the entire game it only began to taper off late in the second half.
The Royals not deterred by any amount of snow went to work with their proven running game rushing 57 times for a total of 307 yards, while passing for 22 yards. Logan Flannery (Sr., Lakeville, Minn.) had 180 yards rushing in the game bringing his season total to 1,379 yards, and his career mark to 4,775. A mark which puts him just 460 yards shy of the all time career rushing record of 5,235 set by graduate Phil Porta between 2003-2006.
Breaking down the scoring drives for the Royals; junior quarterback Josh Aakre (Dawson, Minn.) got the first points of the game, scoring on a 38 yard run with just over 9 minutes left in the first quarter. The Royals went for 2 on the drive but were unable to score leaving the score at 6-0.
In the third quarter the Royals found the end zone again when Flannery scored on a 19 yard run. The score was setup thanks to in part to Ethan Anderson (Jr., Mapleton, Minn.) and the Royals defense who caused Augsburg's Al-Hameed to throw an interception on the previous play.
The Royals continued to dominate Augsburg as they moved into the fourth quarter when Kevin Lindh (So., Houston, Minn.) broke through a whole in the line and sprinted past the defenders to score on a 28 yard run.
With only 2 minutes and 29 seconds left in the fourth quarter Augsburg began what was their only real effective drive of the game. Now with several Bethel reserves in the game, on 2nd and 8 Augsburg quarterback Muneer Al-Hameed was able to break through the defense and slush for a pick up of 42 yards to the Bethel 2 yard line. The Royals then held the Augies for no gain on 1st and goal before Al-Hameed was able to dive into the end zone scoring Augsburg's only points of the game as time expired.
The Bethel defense lead by J.D. Mehlhorn (Fr., Lakeville, Minn.) who had 7 solo tackles. Senior #Bredan Flaherty had 2 interceptions for 56 yards and also was responsible for breaking up another pass. Anderson also had an interception which set up a Bethel score on the next play. The defense also prevented a possible scoring drive by Augsburg when they recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchback. The Royals held Augsburg to 6 first down and 187 yards of total offense.
The Royals will now await word from the NCAA selection committee who will announce which teams are in and their official assignments for the 2010 football playoffs. The announcement will be made live at 3 p.m. tomorrow on ESPNEWS.