Staff photo by Steve Muscatello St. Clair-Mankato Loyola’s Mathew Helget (9) tries to bring down Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Jake Kettner (1) after Kettner made a catch in the third quarter Friday at Johnson Field in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — Gage Baker’s three-yard touchdown run with 32 seconds and ensuing 2-point extra point run lifted St.Clair-Loyola to a 31-30 win over Minnesota Valley Lutheran Friday night at Johnson Field in a Mid-Southeast District, West Sub-District football game.

The win by the Spartans overshadowed a 303-yard, four touchdown performance from MVL quarterback Matt Munsen, who threw all four scoring passes to Jake Kettner. Kettner ended with 182 yards receiving on 13 catches. Kettner had touchdown passes of 20, 4, 8 and 6 yards.

“I am proud of my guys,” Chargers head coach Jim Buboltz said. “This is what Chargers football is about. We took the lead late in the game.”

That lead came at the nine-minute mark when Munsen hit Kettner from 6-yards out to give MVL a 30-23 lead.

But the Spartans (3-0) staged the late comeback, ending with a rushing touchdown.

The Chargers (0-3) had trailed 23-8 at halftime before basically abandoning the run in the second half for the aerial game.

“We went to our strength and our strength is our specialty guys and our quarterback,” Buboltz said. “And our offensive line (missing four starters) did a nice job. We really played well after the first half. I felt our second half was remarkable.

“These young guys got a boatload of confidence now,” he said. “We had a bunch of leaders come forward tonight, That was what we were looking for.”

The Chargers are at Southland for a 7 p.m. Mid-Southeast District football game Friday night.