Northern State had thrived in one-possession games this season, but the Wolves were unable to add another win in that category Saturday night at Dacotah Bank Stadium.

Augustana scored the final 10 points, including a game-winning touchdown with 3:26 left to claim a 31-24 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference football victory, NSU’s only home loss of the season.

“Absolutely hats off to Augustana for winning that game. Great football game,” said Northern coach Mike Schmidt. “Both teams had shots, punches, counter-punches, the whole game. They won it. Their quarterback (Gunnar Hensley) is magnificent and made plays when he needed to.”

The Vikings put together a eight-play, 81-yard drive capped off by a Hensley 12-yard quarterback keeper for the go-ahead score.

Northern had one last chance starting at its 25-yard line. The Wolves drove to the Augustana 36 and completed a pass to the 14-yard line that was called back on an offensive pass interference call in the final minute. The Wolves then had a penalty for too many men on the field before an interception iced the win for Vikings.

“That’s a magnificent team. We’re a good team. Came up short tonight,” Schmidt said. “I’m really proud of our effort in that game. Our guys deserved to win that game, both teams did.”

The win put a damper on a career night by Northern’s Hank Kraft who set a school record with 329 yards rushing.

“I’m proud of Hank,” Schmidt said. “It sucks that it’s got to come in a loss. … I just felt really bad that he’s got to have a night like that and we waste it and squander it. … That’s an unbelievable game by him.”

Kraft scored on touchdown runs of 96 and 80 yards on the exact same play.

“We ran it several times at practice and we knew what it was going to look like,” Kraft said. “I was going to be one-on-one with the corner, which is exactly what we want.”

As he customarily does, Kraft ran over, around and through people the entire night, averaging 13.7 yards per carry.

Kraft’s 96-yard run came just moments after Kegan Mountain wrestled a pass away from a receiver to thwart an Augie scoring opportunity midway through the opening quarter.

“I saw the ball in the air and I instantly thought it was mine. … When the ball is in the air, I think it’s mine every time,” Mountain said.

The Vikings passed for 316 yards in the contest and feature talented receivers. Mountain said he likes those challenges.

“This is the reason I came to play college football was to play against great players on great teams,” Mountain said, “and lace ’em up, and bite down on my mouth piece when they make a play and get back to work the next play.”

The Wolves took their first lead of the game in the second quarter when Joey Dube-Garrett spotted DJ Smith for a 22-yard touchdown strike.

“We work that play a lot in practice. We had that just for this week,” Dube-Garrett said. “We missed that throw in practice and me and DJ stayed after practice and worked on that exact play to get the timing down. We got it down and he made a great play and that’s what he does.”

Dube-Garrett finished with 195 yards passing.

“I had high confidence,” he said. “When I have the great O-line, and playmakers like Hank and other guys around me, I always feel confident.”

Augustana tied the game on a touchdown with 47 seconds left in the half, setting the stage for a back-and-forth second-half battle.

Kraft scored on a 80-yard run just two plays into the third quarter, the Vikings responded with a touchdown on their first possession of the half, and the two squads traded field goals to eventually set the stage for Augie’s game-winning drive.

The loss left Northern with a 6-3 record and dealt a blow to the team’s playoff chances. The Wolves play at Minot State on Saturday before concluding the year by hosting Jamestown.

“We’ll get ready for Minot and bounce back. We’ll have a great game plan and get ready to go with the guys,” Schmidt said. “This is how football goes. We lost three games to really good teams, and I think we’re a really good team.”

There are still things to play for despite the setback to Augustana.

“We can still go 8-3 and we can still win the North,” Kraft said. “That would be pretty cool, something we haven’t done in a long time.”

The Wolves have one loss in the North Division, the same as Minnesota Duluth and Bemidji State.

“This group can still leave a legacy and can still do some stuff we haven’t done here,” Schmidt said. “We can still win the NSIC North. That’s still number one of our goals. We’re going to come back and go to work, and try to get that done the next two weeks.”

To see a complete box score, click on the following link:

https://nsuwolves.com/sports/football/stats/2026/augustana-university/boxscore/14647