Augsburg's football team is in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, for a game on Saturday against an adult club team, the East Side Eagles. Don Stoner, Augsburg Sports Information Director, is on the trip with the team and is filing daily reports.

GAME PHOTOS | VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS

WINNIPEG, Manitoba – The “rouge” is a play unique to Canadian football. A team can score a single point when its punt or missed field goal is unreturnable from the end zone.

And it's what the Augsburg College football team wanted to score in its game against the East Side Eagles adult club team in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Saturday afternoon.

So on the final play of the game, the Auggies' Josh Pronschinske (JR, Fountain City, Wis./Cochrane-Fountain City HS) punted the ball deep into the Eagles' end zone. And when an Eagles player caught the ball a foot out of the end zone, the Auggies had their rouge, and both teams' benches roared in laughter for the final point in Augsburg's 59-20 win in the international exhibition game.

The day didn't turn out promising for the Auggies on their third day in Canada, as the team woke up to a torrential downpour that caused some street flooding as the team motored from the hotel to the East Side Eagles' field. But as the Auggies arrived, the rain subsided, and eventually, the game was played under cloudy skies and temperatures in the upper-60s.

The East Side Eagles football club was incredibly hospitable. The club sponsors youth football teams for the east side of Winnipeg, and also sponsors an adult-level team. About 45 players of a variety of ages came to the field to play the Auggies, who had 37 players on the trip. It was the first game on the Eagles' new field, a FieldTurf-style artificial surface that many of the players remarked was very soft and forgiving.

Augsburg took advantage of the larger Canadian surface (110-yard-long, 65-yard-wide field with 20-yard end zones) to utilize its pass-friendly offense. Quarterback Marcus Brumm (SO, Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville South HS) threw four touchdown passes and ran for another. Tight end Pronschinske caught two touchdowns, and Muneer Al-Hameed (JR, Woodbury, Minn./Minneapolis Washburn HS) and Cameron Krugerud (FY, Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata HS) also caught scoring passes.

The defense got into the act as well, as John Hibbs (JR, Watertown, Minn./Watertown-Mayer HS) and Adam Mead (JR, St. Francis, Minn.) returned interceptions for touchdowns. And special teams was also big, as Wesley Waytashek (FY, Little Falls, Minn.) returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown, while also contributing a 20-yard field goal as a kicker.

Playing the first half under Canadian rules (three downs, 12 players, unlimited pre-snap motion), the Auggies dominated, taking a 38-0 lead at halftime, eventually scoring the first 45 points of the game.

Following a long kickoff return to open the game by Waytashek, the Auggies struck first, as Brumm threw a 35-yard touchdown strike to Al-Hameed. The Auggie defense then scored on the next possession of the game, as Hibbs returned an interception 63 yards for a score. The Auggies closed the quarter with another touchdown, as Brumm threw a six-yard short fade to Pronschinske.

Midway through the second quarter, Waytashek weaved his way for a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown to make the score 28-0, and he added a 20-yard field goal to make the score 31-0. In the final minute, another Auggie interception, coupled with two long passes from Brumm to Al-Hameed, set the stage for the Auggies' final score of the half, a four-yard pass from Brumm to Pronschinske with 18 seconds left.

Four minutes into the third quarter, Mead intercepted a pass and returned it 65 yards for a score to make the lead 45-0. East Side then got on the scoreboard on a 33-yard pass from Bryson Pluta to Brendan Bowman, but Augsburg struck back quickly. A 62-yard pass from Brumm to Al-Hameed set up another score, as Brumm worked a textbook bootleg to his left for a three-yard touchdown.

Another Pluta-to-Bowman touchdown pass, this time for 15 yards, gave the Eagles another score, and a Pluta pass to Ryan Duguay cut the lead to 52-20 with 2:07 left. Augsburg's Dane Bates (JR, White Bear Lake, Minn.) blocked the extra-point attempt.

Augsburg was able to work the ball downfield for the final score, a 20-yard pass from Brumm to Krugerud with 1:12 left to play, setting the stage for the end-of-game rouge by the Auggies.

All in all, it was a good game for both teams – a tune-up for the Eagles' adult season in Manitoba, and a nice way to set up what could be an exciting fall season for the Auggie football team. In all, 37 Auggie players made the trip to Manitoba, and all the players saw valuable playing time against the Eagles.