Minnesota Valley Lutheran running back Carlos Ramirez tries to get to the outside on Saturday night against Murray County Central at Johnson Field.

NEW ULM — In the first quarter of their game with Murray County Central, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers forced three Rebel turnovers and scored two touchdowns to take a 14-0 lead after the first 12 minutes.

After that it was all Murray County Central.

The Rebels scored five touchdowns and shut down the Chargers offense as they came away with a 33-14 win over MVL Saturday night in a Southwest District-East game.

Dylan Johnson scored two touchdowns for MCC (3-1) on a 3-yard run and a 25-yard pass from Blake Schmitz. Schmitz added a 1-yard scoring run. Aaron Johnson found the end zone twice on a 50-yard pass from Schmitz and a 23-yard run.

Mason Cox and Colton Collum scored the MVL touchdowns, both in the first quarter.

Cox scored on a 52-yard run and then tossed a 26-yard scoring pass to Collum.

“We got off of the bus right away and made a couple of big plays early,” Chargers coach Jim Buboltz said. “That was good to see and it got things going for us offensively right away.”

And it was a first quarter dominated by the Chargers.

But after the first quarter, it was all Murray County Central both offensively and defensively.

In the second quarter, the Rebels ran 16 offensive plays to 11 for MVL. In the second half, the Rebels ran 29 plays to 14 for MVL and forced three Chargers turnovers.

The Rebels cut the lead to 14-6 early in second quarter on a Schmitz 1-yard run.

After Aaron Johnson recovered an MVL fumble, the Rebels scored to cut the lead to 14-12 on a 50-yard pass from Schmitz to Aaron Johnson.

Murray County Central then recovered an on-side kick at midfield and five plays later were in the end zone on a 25-yard pass from Schmitz to Dylan Johnson to give the Rebels a 20-14 halftime lead.

“We were up 14-6 and had a first down and we fumbled and we never got the ball back in the first half,” Buboltz said. “It was a turnover at a tough time.”

The Rebels upped that lead to 26-14 following another MVL turnover when Dylan Johnson broke in from three yards out.

Murray County Central capped the scoring at the 3:20 mark of the fourth quarter on a 23-yard run by Aaron Johnson.

“They got it in their heads that they were going to power the ball at us,” Buboltz said. “We had a tough time stopping them. In the second half we did not have the ball in great field position. We did not get things rolling after the first quarter.”