Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Reece Melby (25) sacks the St. Peter quarterback during the fourth quarter Friday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — Coming into their game with the New Ulm Eagles, the defense for the St. Peter football team had been allowing an average of just over 38 points a game in their six contests.

But Friday night in their South Central District, Red Subdistrict game against the Eagles, the Saints’ defense held the Eagles to just 14 points in a 22-14 victory at New Ulm High School.

St. Peter quarterback Wyatt Olson tossed two touchdown passes of 7 and 21 yards to Ethan Volk, and Michael Connor sealed the game with a 40-yard touchdown run with just 33 seconds left in the game.

Nolan Drill scored both of New Ulm’s touchdowns on runs of 25 and 2 yards.

Drill led New Ulm with 120 yards rushing on 18 carries. Cole Ranweiler was held to 90 yards on 22 carries.

For the Eagles and head coach Eric Kauffmann, it was a game where the St. Peter offense ran the ball better than expected. “Conditions were not great, they threw the ball better than we expected them to with the conditions,” Kauffmann said. “They proved us wrong (with two touchdown passes).”

The conditions played a part in St. Peter’s first touchdown when New Ulm punter Brody Bolduan dropped the snap on a punt attempt and took over on the Eagles’ 5-yard line. Three plays later, Wyatt Olson hooked up with Ethan Volk from 7 yards out for a touchdown at the 3:57 mark. The duo connected for the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.

“The field position for us was not good right away,” Kauffmann said. “We forced them to punt and they punted down to our 1-yard line and then we had to work our way out. Then we get a bad snap. That does not help when you put yourself in a hole to start a game.”

St. Peter made that hole a little deeper early in the second quarter when they pieced together a nine-play, 57-yard drive ending less than two minutes into the second quarter on another Olson-to-Volk scoring strike, this one from 21 yards out. Olson connected with Ethan Grant for another 2-point conversion an a 16-0 lead.

New Ulm cut the lead in half on their drive after the St. Peter touchdown when Drill engineered a sevenplay, 59-yard drive when he raced into the end zone from 25 yards out. Drill got the 2-point conversion to cut the lead to 16-8.

“We did come back and we had a good drive before halftime, but it did not work out,” he said. “And we had the ball to start the second half — we had some good drives in the second half (one drive stalling on the St.Peter 20-yard line).”

The Eagles did get a scoring drive going with just under seven minutes left in the game that ate up just over three minutes and ended with a 2-yard run from Drill with 3:38 left. The 2-point attempt failed and New Ulm trailed 16-14.

The Eagles recovered an on-side kick, but they turned the ball over on downs.

St. Peter’s Michael Connor sealed the game with a 40-yard run with 33 seconds left in the game.

“We have to get better — we are making mistakes that we should not be making,” Kauffmann said. “I never question how hard our kids played. They gave it everything that they had. They always do.”