GAME NOTES VS. AUGSBURG

RIPON, Wis. - After a long offseason, the Ripon College football team is ready to get their 2019 season underway on Saturday when they'll kickoff at home against Augsburg University at 1 p.m. The Red Hawks will be trying to avenge last year's season-opening 31-28 loss to the Auggies, which was the first-ever meeting between these two teams.

"We're ready to go against another team and our players are excited and looking forward to a very successful season," Ripon Head Coach Ron Ernst said. "We've been hitting each other in practice for a while now, so it's just time to get the season started."

In last year's meeting with Augsburg, Ripon erased a 14-point deficit to tie the score early in the fourth quarter, only to see Augsburg kick the go-ahead field goal with under six minutes remaining. The Red Hawks, which finished last season 7-3, are hoping to snap a sting of three consecutive season-opening losses against an Augsburg team that went 2-8 in 2018, but have won their last two season-openers.

"We didn't play well in the first half against them last year, but held them to just three points in the second half, so it was a tale of two halves," Ernst said. "This isn't the championship game, but it's an important one, and it's important to get off to a good start. The biggest thing is that our players want to be more consistent and put together four solid quarters."

Ripon's offense is coming off a season that saw them lead the Midwest Conference in scoring (39.9 ppg), total offense (401.1 ypg), and rushing offense (319.9 ypg), but if there were to repeat that this season, they will be doing so with one of the youngest lineups in the conference. The Red Hawks boast two freshmen and seven sophomores among their 11 starters on offense, with all five offensive linemen being sophomores who didn't start in their only other year with the team.

"Despite their youth, those guys got a lot of playing time last year, so they're not your typical sophomores," Ernst said. "We're going to need them to grow up real fast and gain experience very quickly, but there's a tremendous amount of talent in those younger classes."

The offense will face an Augsburg team that allowed 44.4 points and 441.5 yards per game last season, including an average of 231.2 rushing yards. Ripon will try to take advantage of that in what will be Sophomore Quarterback Cormac Madigan's first full year as a starter. Despite starting just eight of the team's 10 games, Madigan led the MWC in rushing with 1,109 yards, which ranks seventh in program history for a single season, en route to First Team All-Conference honors. He also tied Senior Fullback Tyler VanDeVelde for the team lead with 13 rushing touchdowns, which is tied for ninth in program history.

"For the last several years, our quarterback situation has been very fluid, but this year, we have a guy in Cormac who is an established quarterback with some experience," Ernst said. "He's a tough competitor who is a terrific leader and is a very smart young man and we're excited to see what he can do. When you lead the league in rushing like he did, the expectations will be high, but he embraces that."

Ripon's defense will be competing against an Auggie offense that scored 12.5 points and 270.4 total yards per game last season. That may be misleading when you consider that starting quarterback Quinn Frisell missed all but two games last season. Now entering his Senior season, Frisell is two years removed from a season that saw him throw for 2,600 yards and 26 touchdowns, while tossing just 10 interceptions. He will be a formidable opponent for arguably Ripon's strongest unit - their defensive backfield - which returns all five starters from a year ago when they combined to record 19 of the team's 20 interceptions. Bennett Groves led the team with five INTs, while Cameron Gruenwald and Devin Smith each recorded four. Safeties Armando Mosqueda and Lane Barnes each finished with three, with Barnes earning Third Team All-Region honors.

"The strength of our team is in the secondary and we're going to lead heavily on them at times," Ernst said. "Those five guys have all had an excellent preseason camp and they're going to go into the first game really excited to prove what they can do."

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Ingalls Field on Saturday. The game can be seen live, with LiveStats at: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.