A tough loss
By JIM BASTIAN, Journal Sports WriterArticle Photos
By JIM BASTIAN
Journal Sports Writer
NEW ULM - United South Central quarterback Ryan Swearingen ran for three touchdowns and completed 13-of-20 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown as the Rebels snuck by Minnesota Valley Lutheran 29-25 in Gopher Conference football.
Swearingen ran for scores of seven, one and five yards while hooking up with Chris Schultz for an 83-yard score with 4:09 left in the game,
Christian Evers, Galen Holzhueter and Keith Struck reached the end zone for the Chargers.
Evers scored on a 4-yard touchdown run in the first quarter with Holzhueter running back a kickoff 85 yards. Struck caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Seth Hoscheit.
Ben Schone added a 27-yard field goal for MVL.
But the story of the game was the lack of a Charger running attack as they totaled 16 yards on 29 carries in the game.
MVL head football coach Jim Buboltz had no comment after the game.
The Chargers defense forced three USC turnovers in the first quarter and scored 11 points off of them.
Cole Brown recovered a Swearingen fumble on the third play of the game. From there, the Chargers took advantage of a short 20-yard field and scored five plays later on a 4-yard run by Evers at the 8:38 mark. Hoscheit hit Holzhueter for a two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.
MVL recovered a Riley Stenzel fumble just one play into the Rebels' next drive and that resulted in a 27-yard field goal by Schoen.
USC got on the board in the second quarter thanks to the Rebel defense which sacked Evers in the end zone at the 1:33 mark.
Taking the ensuing free kick, USC walked 47 yards with Swearingen bolting in from seven yards out to cut the lead to 11-10.
But the Chargers regained some momentum just seconds later when Holzhueter returned the kickoff 85 yards down the right sideline with 29 seconds left in the half for an 18-10 halftime lead.
And it looked even better for the Chargers when they took the opening kickoff of the second half and marched 78 yards in 10 plays.
Two 19-yard completions from Hoscheit to Enter and Struck and a pair of 11-yard runs - MVL's longest runs of the night - by Holzhueter and Hoscheit set the stage for a 15-yard touchdown pass from Hoscheit to Struck at the 8:45 mark and a comfortable 25-10 MVL lead.
However someone forgot to tell the Rebels that the lead was too big to come back from.
Swearingen engineered an 11-play, 78-yard scoring drive when he capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run at the 3:32 mark of the third quarter that saw USC pull to within 25-16.
After a Charger drive went three-and-out to start the fourth quarter, the Rebels crawled even closer when they used a 36-yard, six-play scoring drive to cut the lead to 25-22 at the 9:06 mark on Swearingen's 5-yard run.
USC then completed the comeback when Swearingen dropped back to pass and found Schultz behind the MVL secondary for an 83-yard touchdown with 4:09 left in the contest.
