Different team. Different night. Same ending.

For the third week in a row, the University of Minnesota Duluth found itself trailing with under five minutes to go in the fourth quarter and for the third week in a row the Bulldogs came through in the clutch. This time, it was junior wide out Nate Ricci and senior quarterback Drew Bauer who sealed the deal as they hooked up for a 46-yard touchdown in the final two minutes of regulation to lift UMD to a 41-38 victory over No. 16 Augustana University Saturday night at James S. Malosky Stadium.

The Bulldogs, who found themselves trailing 31-17 midway through the third quarter before outscoring the Vikings 24-7 the rest of the way, improved to 3-1 on the year while hiking their Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference home victory streak to 18 games.

"It's been like this for four weeks in a row," said UMD head coach Curt Wiese. "It's nothing that we can necessarily coach into our kids. It's having maturity on the sidelines. It's having guys like Drew Bauer have a command of the offense and have a calm, composing presence at the line of scrimmage."

Bauer amassed 470 yards of total offense, a career-best and the fourth-highest single-game total in program history. In addition to throwing for a personal-high 331 yards and two touchdowns (while completing 21 of 35 passes), the fourth-year starter and two-time team captain rushed 20 times for 139 yards. Both of his scoring strikes were to Ricci, who set a career-high with his 153 receiving yards and matched another with his six pass receptions. Bauer's counterpart, Augustana senior Trey Heid, the reigning NSIC South Division Offensive Player of the Year, certainly flexed plenty of offensive muscle as well, finishing with 475 total yards, including 388 through the air, and had a hand in six touchdowns.

"Drew Bauer is tough to beat. Trey Heid is tough to beat," said Wiese. "Those are two guys I wouldn't want to defend if I was a defensive coordinator."

Augustana, which is also 3-1 overall, committed three second-half turnovers, two of which (a fumble and interception by sophomore safety Sam Lynch) led to Bulldog touchdowns. The Bulldogs wound up outgaining the Vikings in total yards (596-498), first downs (28-23) and time of possession (38:17-21:43). UMD held the ball for all but 4:13 in the fourth quarter en route to defeating Augustana for an eighth straight time.

Defensively, senior inside linebacker Beau Bates and first-year freshman cornerback Bishop McDonald both paced the Bulldogs with six tackles. Bates, UMD's current tackles leader (22 stops) had the Bulldogs' only sack of the evening, but the UMD did register eight quarterback hurries, including four by junior inside linebacker Zach Bassuener.

The Bulldogs will remain at Malosky Stadium next Saturday afternoon to take on Minnesota State University-Moorhead in their 2016 NSIC North Division debut. UMD is the eight-time defending North Division champion and is 27-0 all-time at home against North Division competition.

NOTES: The 596 yards of total offense the Bulldogs generated were their most in almost three years (619 yards at Minnesota State-Moorhead on Oct. 12, 2013) ... junior offensive guard Nolan Folkert lined up in the UMD backfield for the second straight week and, like he did in last Saturday's 52-49 win at Concordia-St. Paul, parlayed his only rush into a one-yard touchdown ... the Bulldogs' three wins this season have all been by three points ... UMD is now a eye-popping 58-1 in its last 59 overall home bouts (including NCAA II playoffs) with NSIC foes going back to Oct. 21, 2000 ... Drew Bauer has  eclipsed the 100-yard ground yardage plateau 10 times as a Bulldog.