Courtesy of Adam Hussman/MLC SID

GREENVILLE, IL — The Martin Luther College football team made the road trip down to Southern Illinois for a noon conference game with Greenville University on Saturday. Both offenses got off to a hot start, as there were four touchdowns combined between the two schools in the first period. The game would go back-and-forth for the remainder of the game as well before Greenville scored the game-winning touchdown on a 17-yard pass from Max Lynch to Dominic Esparza in the corner of the end zone to give the Panthers the 42-35 victory over MLC.

The Knights’ passing attack had another impressive game, as Brady Turriff passed for 337 yards while throwing four touchdown passes. Turriff found Thomas Koelpin on a 78-yard touchdown over the middle to tie up the game 7-7 early in the first quarter.

The Panthers had a balanced attack on offense, as all six touchdown drives for Greenville resulted in 50 yards or more. Greenville was led in the backfield by Adrian Hinton, who rushed for 167 yards and 3 touchdowns, while Lynch threw for 223 yards and 2 touchdowns.

While the Knights didn’t have as much success on the ground, running backs Rees Roecker and Zach Arndt still made plays throughout the game and both players slipped out for receiving touchdowns. Roecker’s touchdown made it 28-26, before the Knights tied it up 28-28 with a 2-point conversion shortly after, while Arndt’s second receiving touchdown tied things up once again 35-35 following the Panthers’ score. On that play, the backup quarterback, Jack Pittenger recorded the touchdown pass in relief of Turriff. With the touchdown, Turriff and Pittenger tied Greg Holzhueter for the most passing touchdowns in a single game (5) in MLC football history.

MLC did have a chance on their final drive to send the game into overtime, but Greenville’s Matthew Reese sacked the Knights and put a halt to an MLC comeback.

Koelpin was Turriff’s main target and the junior finished with a career-high 191 yards and two touchdown receptions. Jude Pederson was also effective on the outside and caught five passes for 76 yards.

David Baumann led the MLC defense with a season-best 13 tackles, while defensive back Matthew Hillmer also recorded double-digit tackles with 11.

MLC goes to 4-2 overall, 2-1 in the UMAC, and has a home contest with Westminster next Saturday, October 26, at 12 p.m.