Box Score HU football coach Chad Rogosheske stood in the middle of Edor Nelson Field with an object in his hand and a big smile on his face. "We picked a good time to take our first lead, didn't we?" he asked as he watched his charges prance in celebration of a dramatic 28-27 overtime over Augsburg Saturday.

The object in Rogosheske's hands was The Hammer, the trophy awarded annually to the winner of the Augsburg-Hamline game. Thanks in part to Anthony Hill's blocked extra point in overtime, the trophy returns to St. Paul for the first time since 2009.

How it came to that is quite a story.

Despite the fact that the MIAC's no. 2 rusher, Austin Duncan, was out of action with a foot injury, the Pipers manufactured 333 yards total offense. Brendan Nachtrieb stepped into Duncan's shoes, rushing for 67 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Tim Bona threw for 230 yards and a score. Nine of those passes were caught by TE Philip Sherman, including the scoring play.

Things didn't start well. The Auggies took the opening kickoff and marched the length of the field to take a 7-0 lead. They pushed it to 14-0 in the second quarter before the Pipers responded with a 84 yards, 10 play drive that ended with Bona diving in from a yard out.  However, Forrest Coughlin's extra point attempt was blocked to leave the halftime score at 14-6.

It was 21-6 late in the third quarter when the Pipers marched 75 yards in 13 plays with Bona and Sherman hooking up for a six yard score. Bona then slipped a pass to Ryan Ferkinhoff for a two-point conversion that tightened the score to 21-14.
Despite giving up 586 yards total offense, the Pipers were aggressive on defense all day, forcing six fumbles. They recovered four of those miscues. One of those occurred at the HU 21 with 4:32 left. Hamline moved quickly, going 79 yards in 10 plays with Nachtrieb bouncing in from a yard out. Coughlin's extra point tied the game at 21.

The Auggies quickly went to work. They hit on a third and 13 to keep a drive going and got to the Piper 12 when Hill forced a fumble that was recovered by Zach Schwalbach.

That's sent the game into OT. The Pipers won the toss and chose to go second. Augsburg moved quickly as QB Ayrton Scott capped the scoring drive with a five yard run. Hill then made one of the biggest plays of the season when he blocked the extra point try to leave the score at 27-21.

HU wasted no time evening the score as Nachtrieb, a freshman from Metamore, Ill. sprinted into the end zone from 25 yards out. Coughlin then added the extra point, setting off a wild celebration on the field. It was the frirst OT victory for Hamline since a 41-34 win at St. Thomas in 2007.

Hamline is now 4-5 overall, 2-5 in the MIAC. They will get a chance to get to the .500 mark for the first time since 1997 next Saturday when they host Carleton in the season finale at Klas Field. Hamline will honors its senior prior to the 1:00 p.m. game time.