St. Louis, Mo. – The RV Washington University in St. Louis football team took its first loss of the season on Saturday afternoon, falling to Augustana 35-17. The Bears are now 5-1 overall with a 4-1 mark in CCIW action.
 
Augustana was forced to punt on the opening drive of the game, but the Vikings' defense sacked quarterback Matt Rush and recovered the fumble to get the ball back.
 
Augustana started its run with a Tyler Rivelli rush for four yards. Quarterback Cole Bhardwaj hit Bobby Inserra for a seven-yard pass for a first down at the five. Rivelli picked up another two yards and finished it off with a three-yard touchdown run. Sidney Maroon hit the extra point for a 7-0 lead.
 
The Bears started their drive with an eight-yard pass from Rush to Gabriel Sirek followed by a nine-yard run from Kenneth Hamilton for a first down at the 47. Hamilton picked up another nine yards and six yards, respectively before Rush connected with Collin Goldberg for a 20-yard pass to the 12.
 
Hamilton ran for three more yards and Rush picked up two, putting WashU on the two. Following an incomplete pass, Ross Muchnick lined up and hit a 25-yard field goal to make it a 7-3 game.
 
Augustana scored again on its next drive. Bhardwaj hit Inserra for a two-yard pass followed by a 25-yard pass to the 48 for a first down. Rivelli picked up one yard and Inserra caught a three-yard pass from Bhardwaj.
 
Bhardwaj then connected with Inserra for eight yards and Breyden Smith for nine yards. A 13-yard pass from Bhardwaj to Jordan Vesey gave the Vikings a first down at the 14 and a Mike DiGioia rush for four yards put them at the 10. Bhardwaj found Inserra for four yards and Rivelli finished things off with a six-yard touchdown run. Maroon's kick was good, putting Augustana up 14-3 with 1:24 remaining in the first quarter.
 
WashU was forced to punt to start the second quarter and the Vikings capitalized with another touchdown on the following drive.
 
Bhardwaj hit Jake Miller for a nine-yard pass and Ben Ludlum picked up two yards. The Vikings had an incomplete pass but moved up 15 yards following a roughing the passer call. Rivelli ran for 10 yards and a first down at the 39 and Bhardwaj hit Inserra for 12 yards. He found Inserra again for five yards on two catches before DiGioia picked up six yards on two carries. DiGioia added another five-yard run for a first down at the two, then picked up one more yard. He finished the job with a one-yard touchdown run and Maroon's kick was good for a 21-3 lead.
 
The Bears reached their own 40 on the next drive before Augustana's John Bolton intercepted Rush's pass and ran it back to the 25.
 
Following a Rivelli loss for one yard, Bhardwaj hit Inserra for a 26-yard touchdown pass. Maroon hit the extra point kick for a 28-3 Vikings lead.
 
Both the Bears and Augustana punted on the next drives before WashU went down to score its first touchdown.
 
Fred Ware picked up one yard and Rush found Collin Hoyhtya for an eight-yard pass. The two connected again for 13 yards and then Rush hit Grant Hajicek for an eight-yard pass to the 50. Rush and Goldberg connected on the next play for 15 yards and a first down at the 35. Ware picked up 13 yards and then Rush hit Sirek for a 22-yard touchdown pass. Muchnick's extra point kick was good, making it a 28-10 game with the Vikings in the lead.
 
After two drives that resulted in a punt for each team to start the second half, the Bears added another touchdown.
 
Rush hit Hoyhtya for a 12-yard pass and Hamilton ran for 14 yards and first down at the Bears' 46. Hoyhtya caught a three-yard pass from Rush and Rush followed with a 16-yard run to the 35 for a first down. Hamilton had seven-straight runs for eight, one, one, six, five, four, and five yards, respectively. Levi Moore finished things off with a five-yard touchdown run. Muchnick's kick was good, cutting Augustana's lead to 28-17 with 4:47 remaining in the third quarter.
 
WashU forced a punt to open the final quarter, but after an incomplete pass, a loss of five yards and a sack, the Bears had to punt. Augustana's Inserra caught the punt and returned it for 45 yards for a touchdown. Maroon's kick was good, putting the Vikings up 35-17.
 
The Bears had 312 yards of total offense (156 passing, 156 rushing) compared to Augustana's 327 yards of total offense (269 passing, 58 rushing).
 
Rush finished 14-for-21 with 175 yards, one touchdown and one interception, and was sacked three times.
 
Hamilton led the rushing game with 74 yards on 13 attempts while Sirek had 98 receiving yards on eight catches with one touchdown.
 
Defensively, Matthew Schmal had 13 total tackles (9 solo, 4 ast), 0.5 tackles for a loss and 0.5 sacks. Jack Costello had six total tackles, one forced fumble and one pass breakup while Ryan Schmadtke had six total tackles.
 
The Bears hit the road to face No. 1 North Central next Saturday at 1 p.m.