The Missouri Western Griffons gave up 21unanswered second half points to the Augustana College Vikings as they fell 37-16 in the 43rd Mineral Water Bowl. With the defeat the Griffons finished the 2008 season with a record of 6-6.

The first half did not start well for the Griffons as they would go
three and out on their first possession. Jamie Hanson’s punt would
only go six yards as it would be tipped at the line of scrimmage by the
Vikings defensive line. The Vikings would take over at the Western 37
yard line and in six plays the Vikings would go up 7-0 on a Tyler
Schulte six yard run.

The two teams would battle for field position the rest of the first
half and with 4:28 left in the first quarter the Griffons would force a
Viking punt. Western’s special teams would answer the call when Cedric
Houston took a punt 54 yards to get the Griffons on the board. Dustin
Strickler’s kick would be blocked and the Vikings would hold onto the
7-6 lead.

The Vikings would get on the board again when Ryan Grossman connected
on a 21 yard field goal to cap off a 75 yard 13 play drive to put the
Vikings up 10-6 with 11:18 left in the half. Strickler would answer the
field goal with one of his own from 27 yards out to cut the lead to 10-9
with 9:19 left in the frame.

Vikings running back Joe Clark would blast into the end zone from one
yard out to put the Vikings up 23-16 with just 5:51 left in the game.
Western would answer again with its special teams, when holder Eric
Anderson found tight end Alvaro Prado on a fake field goal from 14 yards
out to tie the game at 16 going into the locker room.

At the half the Griffons and the Vikings had pretty even statistics as
Western had 177 yards on 34 plays to the Augie’s 186 yards on 33
plays. Western had the ball for 15:55 and had 109 passing yards. Prado
led the way in the first half with three catches for 38 yards and one
touchdown.

The second half would belong to the Vikings as they would score 21
unanswered points to win their first ever Mineral Water Bowl appearance
and finish the season with an 8-4 record.

The Griffons could not get anything going as they had three turnovers
in the half and only managed 108 yards in the frame.

The Vikings finished the game with 281 yards rushing with Clark leading
the way with 122 yards on 23 carries and two touchdowns. The Vikings
finished the day with a total of 381 total yards.

Western only managed 285 total yards on the day with Thomas Hodges
leading the way on the ground with 97 yards on 18 carries. Zach Sharp
and Andrew Mead both had four receptions in the contest.

On defense the Griffons were led by senior defensive end Soane Etu as
he had 12 tackles with 1.5 tackles for a loss. Deondre Williams, Nate
Bruto and Sean Whiters had 11, 10 and 10 respectively. The Vikings were
led by Andrew Keel as he had 11 total tackles on the day