The football stadium on the campus of Augustana College has been a house of horrors for the Carthage football team for the past four decades, and Ericson Field was once again for the Red Men on Saturday night.

Carthage committed three turnovers and had one punt blocked and recovered in the end zone for a touchdown in a 42-20 loss to Augustana (Ill.) in a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin game.

The Red Men (4-3, 1-3 CCIW) are now 0-18-1 since last winning at Augustana in 1970.

“The turnovers killed us in the first half,” Carthage coach Tim Rucks said. “We were climbing uphill, and you can’t do that against a good team like Augustana (4-3, 2-2 CCIW). With a ball-control offense like Agustana’s, turnovers play right into their hands.

“Without taking anything away from Augustana, I told our guys what we did, we did to ourselves. Augustana is a good football team, but we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win.”

Carthage pulled within 7-6 on Evan Jones’ 7-yard pass to Mike Koeneman with 26 seconds remaining in the first quarter. But in a sign of bad fortune to come, Tyler Funk’s PAT was blocked.

The Red Men fumbled the ball away on their next two possessions. Augustana converted the latter fumble into a three-play scoring drive capped by A.J. Hoger’s 36-yard run for a 21-6 lead.

Then, with 34 seconds left before halftime, Augstana’s Andrew Rossett blocked Funk’s punt at the Carthage 21, and Aaron Setchell fell on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown and 28-6 Vikings’ advantage.

That was the third time in four CCIW games that Carthage has had a punt blocked and returned or recovered in the end zone for a TD.

“I’ve never seen so many blocked punts for touchdowns before. That was a backbreaker,” Rucks said. “We’re a little down at the moment, but the important thing to me is (to) keep working at getting better and avoiding any finger pointing.

“We have to remain a team and work at this together, and that’s my job to make sure we go about things that way.”

Augustana accumulated 445 yards of total offense, including 100-yard rushing efforts by Hoger (11 carries for 116 yards, two TDs) and Robert Wood (16 carries for 114 yards).

David Lee also completed 16-of-22 passes for 138 yards and two TDs with no interceptions.

Carthage’s Jones completed 42-of-56 passes for 327 yards and two TDs with one interception that Augustana turned into another short TD drive midway through the third quarter.

The Red Men will attempt to end their two-game losing streak when they host Millikin (5-2, 2-2 CCIW) 6 p.m. Saturday at Art Keller Field.