Ehlke’s interception set up one final MLC touchdown drive that was capped off on a 4-yard TD run by fellow senior Rees Roecker as the Knights picked up a 21-14 Homecoming win over the University of Minnesota Morris Cougars.

Just when it seemed like the Knights (3-1, 1-0) had hit a wall with their offense and gave the Cougars (1-3, 0-1) a good chance to put the game away in the final minutes, Ehlke picked off UMM quarterback Hayden Charboneau on third-and-15, taking it 17 yards to the Cougars 38-yard line with 1:51 left to play.

“As coach said on the sideline, he said, ‘Big players make big plays,'” Ehlke said. “And I wasn’t the only one out there that made one. I was happy that I could do my job out there and make one, but our defense, the entire game we were just getting back on the field, we knew we couldn’t let them score.

“We gave up that one big play in the first quarter and after that we said that we weren’t going to let them score after that. [Our defense] didn’t let them score [after that] … [We] just played hard-nosed football because they’re one of the better teams in the conference, we were going to come in for a dog fight and I was super happy with the way that our defense played every down, we were just going at it.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Martin Luther College’s Andrew Esmay (right, 9) fights through a block by University of Minnesota Morris offensive lineman Tyler Stephans (78) during MLC’s Homecoming and Upper Midwest Athletic Football game Saturday at the MLC Bowl in New Ulm.

Roecker then pounded the ball up the middle six times, one run for 19 yards, before powering into the end zone for a 4-yard TD run with five seconds left in the game to put MLC on top.

“We just tried to get to the end zone, at least in field-goal distance,” Roecker said of the Knights’ final drive. “If we scored, then we knew we were going to win. This game is huge because Morris is a great team, their defense played hard, offense played hard, just a good win.”

The Cougars’ Jacob Miranda did give the Knights one last scare when he had a nice kickoff return following Roecker’s go-ahead score, taking it 47 yards across midfield. The Knights were able to trip him up at the MLC 44, however, to finalize the game.

“They pulled it together for that last drive, that was unbelievable,” MLC head coach Paul Huebner said of his offensive line. “We had at times spurts of really good run play and then we’d miss one here or there. Maybe I’d call a bad play or something at the wrong time and they’d blitz and blow us up. But they executed the gap-scheme stuff, which is newer for us offensively, and to just do that, march down the field.

“Rees Roecker had a heck of a game, running hard … Zach Arndt does a phenomenal job as a blocking back. Zach Arndt’s a guy who’s more of a running back, slot receiver, but this year as a senior captain, he’s stepped into the role where he’s blocking a lot and doing a really, really good job of it. All five offensive lineman, plus Zach, moving people for Rees is just a really cool thing, especially on our last drive.”

In addition to Ehlke’s interception, David Baumann also had an interception return for 30 yards in the second half that set the Knights up at the UMM 7-yard line. The Cougars got a strong defensive effort back, however, and forced an MLC turnover on downs at the goal line with 6:56 left to play.

Both teams exchanged punts after that before UMM had its final drive that ended in Ehlke’s big interception.

Roecker finished the game with 35 carries for 173 yards and two touchdown rushes, while Knights quarterback Brady Turriff completed 7 of 25 passes for a touchdown and an interception. Turiff’s touchdown throw came just before halftime when he threw a deep pass up the middle to Jude Pederson in single coverage for a 38-yard TD pass and a 14-7 lead at halftime.

Charboneau finished completing 7 of 18 passes for 136 yards and two interceptions.

“We just struggled to connect in the passing game,” Huebner said. “I don’t know if was the wind kind of messing with the guys’ heads a little bit. We haven’t had a windy game like this in a while, I guess, but whatever it was, we just couldn’t quite connect with the efficiency we have in the first three games. We had some drops and throws that were off. I thought pass protection was really good. Offensive line did a real good job today of giving us enough time, but we just couldn’t connect.”

The Cougars got on the board first in the opening quarter after blocking a Micah Koschnitzke field goal try of 16 yards. On the next play, Miranda, a wide receiver, threw a short pass to Manny Guy, who took it 87 yards for a touchdown.

MLC got a nice special teams play of its own with less than seven minutes left in the first quarter when Baumann blocked a punt that was recovered by Matthew Hillmer and returned 6 yards to the UMM 4-yard line. MLC wasted no time tying it up when Roecker carried the ball to the right for a 4-yard TD run on the first play of the next drive.

The Cougars tied it at 14-all when JT Cook got a pick-6 of 31 yards with 1:39 left in the third quarter.

Thomas Balge led the Knights in tackles with 12, while Baumann added eight tackles and a sack to go with his interception and blocked punt. Andrew Esmay had a big game for the MLC defense also with 2 1/2 sacks, two of them being strip sacks and fumble recoveries for the Knights. Jesus Medina added a 1 1/2 sacks to the MLC stat sheet, while Daniel Biermann, Joseph Dahlberg and Ehlke each picked up a sack.

“Defense was doing their job all game and offense started off hot, we kind of slowed down towards the middle,” Roecker said. “We had to pick it up at the end because defense was playing a heck of a game out there. It’s just a brotherhood, we’ve got to play for them, they’ve got to play for us.”

FOOTBALL MAGNET

Esmay, a junior defensive end, was a monster for the Knights in the first half on defense. The 6-foot-7, 201-pound native of Temple, Texas, was somehow involved in every Knights fumble recovery on the day and a menace for the Cougars to block. Despite it being his third year at MLC, the junior hasn’t gotten to see as much action until this season and he’s making every play count.

“He is kind of a first year in that he didn’t play his freshman year and last year as a sophomore, he got hurt in Week 2, Week 3 and didn’t play the rest of the season,” Huebner said. “So this is the first time that we’ve had Drew for an extended period of time. He’s a heck of a football player, freak athlete. He’s got the highest vertical of anybody on the team, tallest guy on the team. Heck of an athlete and works his butt off. To see the kind of production he’s having is just phenomenal.”

BY THE NUMBERS

UMM finished with 296 total yards of offense to MLC’s 218, but the MLC ground game was in control and finished with a total net of 149 yards rushing to UMM’s 37.

MLC also finished with eight sacks to UMM’s three.

“We knew that our guys were going to shut down the run,” Ehlke said. “And we knew that us in the secondary, we were going to have to make big plays, and we did just that. We had picks, we had fumbles, all over the place, we were flying around and I’m just super happy and proud of the way our guys came out and performed today.”

NEXT UP

MLC travels for another UMAC game at Crown College next at 1 p.m. Saturday. Crown lost to the University of Northwestern (MN) 69-14 Saturday in St. Paul to fall to 0-4 on the year.