Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Martin Luther College runnin back Joshua Wong tries to run between a pair of University of Minnesota Morris defenders during a run in the first quarter Saturday at MLC in New Ulm. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — While the Martin Luther College football team is loaded with underclassmen, the Knights are learning on the fly how to win in 2017 after a winless year in 2016.

Jared Witkowiak’s late-game interception in the corner of the end zone clinched the victory for the Knights as they improved to 4-2 overall and 3-2 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference with a 14-7 win against UM-Morris. There was also a late-game power outage with less than 3 minutes to go in the game and the referees kept track of the game time the rest of the way.

It was the second meeting of the two schools this year, with MLC winning the season opener 14-7 at UM-Morris on a touchdown with 15 seconds left.

On Saturday, it was the defense that shined for the Knights on their homecoming.

“The defense played outstanding, the way they did last time,” MLC coach Mark Stein said. “It was just a really neat atmosphere, the defense and special teams played great and offensively we moved the ball well, we just didn’t finish drives.”

MLC’s defense allowed just 58 yards rushing on 22 carries.

MLC sophomore quarterback Ian Paulsen marched the Knights up and down the field all game, but the Knights were unable to capitalize on most of those scoring chances inside the 20. MLC had six chances inside the red zone but scored only twice.

MLC finished with 393 yards of total offense compared to just 181 yards for the Cougars. MLC also had 23 first downs while UM-Morris had 11.

UM-Morris struck first, but the Knights tied the game at 7-7 when Nate Stein scored on a 7-yard run in the second quarter and the teams were tied at halftime.

Paulsen gave his team a lead early in the third quarter with a touchdown pass to Josh Schroeder to make it 14-7, which is where it remained the rest of the way.

“We made some mental mistakes early, I think that hurt us,” Stein said. “We had some penalties early in the first half that hurt us and we lacked some confidence at time. We’ll get it together, the important thing is we moved the ball well, we just can’t put the ball on the ground and we can’t hurt ourselves with penalties in the red zone.”

Paulsen finished with 95 yards rushing on 22 carries and he threw for 195 yards (15-of-29) and a touchdown.

Josh VonDeylen and Tristan Pankow led the MLC defense with 10 and eight tackles, while Keith Brassow and Jacob Schmidt each recorded sacks. Daniel Gensmer also blocked a punt in the first half.

MLC improved to 4-2 on the season and 3-2 in UMAC play with the win. Morris fell to 1-5 overall and 1-4 in league play in defeat.

MLC is at St. Scholastica next Saturday.