Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Martin Luther College senior Thomas Koelpin (3) flexes in celebration after teammate Arthur Robinson gets in the end zone for the Knights during the fourth quarter of Saturday’s UMAC football game against Crown at the MLC Bowl in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — The Martin Luther College Knights got a strong effort out of a bruised defense Saturday, but their offense struggled to keep up in the end as the Crown Polars earned a 17-7 win in an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference football game at the MLC Bowl.

The Knights (2-3, 0-2) tried to mix things up on offense with a combination of passes and rushes, but the ground game never really got going as it was held to 65 net yards on 25 carries. That made things tougher on quarterback Brady Turriff, who finished the game completing 14 of 35 passes for 183 yards and an interception while taking four sacks.

“We never really got into a rhythm,” Knights head coach Paul Huebner said. “Credit to Crown’s offense of controlling the ball and controlling the tempo of the game. The first half we ran 22 plays. It’s just hard to get into a rhythm and feel good and feel confident in the things that we could execute. Give their defense credit, too. Did a good job of mixing up fronts, mixing up coverages and some exotic blitzes that got home.”

The Polars (3-2, 2-0), meanwhile, kept the chains and clock moving on the ground with 51 total carries between five different rushers for 212 yards. That rushing attack was led by quarterback Jamarrius Courtney, who had 19 carries for 119 yards while completing 4 of 10 passes for 47 yards and a touchdown.

Crown got on the board first after a clock-chewing drive that saw three penalties and came to an end on a 5-yard TD run by Jakari Hunnecook. The 8-minute, 36-second drive was followed with a PAT by Christopher Cardona to make it a 7-0 game.

After completing an 8-yard pass for a first down to Thomas Koelpin, who finished with five catches for 50 yards, Turriff ran into some trouble on a deep throw that was picked off by Eddie Hallowanger and returned 10 yards to the Crown 45-yard line. The MLC defense stood stout, however, forcing the Polars into a three-and-out on their next drive.

The Knights still struggled to move the ball effectively, however, and had a three-and-out of their own, giving the Polars the ball the remainder of the first quarter. The Polars continued to move the ball after that and scored early in the second quarter on a short pass up the middle to Hunnecook, who took it into the end zone for a 15-yard TD and 14-0 lead after the PAT.

After Thomas Balge punted for the fourth time in the game on the Knights’ opening drive of the second half, Crown moved the ball with nine consecutive carries to set up a 30-yard field goal attempt by Cardona. Cardona connected on it with 3:45 left in the third quarter for a 17-0 lead.

Balge was forced to punt again before the end of the third quarter, but the MLC defense opened the fourth quarter with a big tackle at the line by Nathan Schmidt to force a Polars turnover on downs at the MLC 41.

MLC’s offense finally was bale to break through thanks in large part to a big catch and run by freshman Noah Huebner, who took it 41 yards down the sideline before being bumped out of bounds at the Crown 5. Knights running back Arthur Robinson, who finished with 19 carries for 69 yards, needed two carries to find the end zone after that, punching it in on a 2-yard run with 12:23 left to play. The PAT by Micah Koschnitzke was good, making it 17-7.

MLC’s defense ended up forcing two more punts — with a missed field goal by Cardona in between them — but the Knights couldn’t get much going from there out. Their lone big play again came thanks to the hands of Noah Huebner, who caught a deep pass up the middle of the field for 28 yards in the closing minutes of the game. But Turriff was sacked twice after that and had an intentional grounding to turn it over on downs as the Polars were able to kneel the clock out.

In addition to punting the ball five times in the game, Balge helped lead the MLC defense with 16 tackles, 1.5 for a loss, while Koschnitzke and Ethan Melso each had 13. Tyler Case and Deiondre Parks each added five tackles for the Knights.

“The effort and preparation [stood out],” coach Huebner said of his team’s defense. “We are down, we are missing three of our original starting defensive linemen, who were all out today, and a fourth starter is dealing with some shoulder issues, so limited a little bit in practice. So we’ve got young guys playing defensive line. We’ve got offensive linemen and tight ends playing defense line, and the job that our coaching staff did on the defensive side of the ball is phenomenal.”

Jakalyn Roy led the Polars defense with five tackles, three coming for a loss.

HEAD UP

Turriff, who is in his second season with the Knights, spent extra time after the game talking with coach Huebner. Through five games, Turriff has completed 57% of his passes for 1,017 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions. Saturday marked his toughest outing when it came to his completion percentage, but not all of that was on him.

“[I told him] just to keep his head up and keep his confidence level,” Huebner said. “Some days it just isn’t your day and the plays just don’t get made. We didn’t make enough plays and didn’t have enough plays in the first half like I mentioned, but the second half we missed a couple and just by a little bit.”

FAMILY FRESHMAN

Noah Huebner, the son of coach Huebner’s cousin Phil Huebner, who also played for MLC, was a bright spot in a tough game offensively for the Knights. He had just two catches, but they were big ones as he turned them into 69 total yards.

“He got recruited by all sorts of schools and could have played at a higher level, but he’s here because he wants to get into ministry,” coach Huebner said of Noah. “He’s got a wonderful serving leader’s heart. To have a kind of talent like that could have played any DIII and even some DII football show up and play for us is awesome.”

Coach Huebner said there are high expectations for Noah Huebner, which he also has for himself, but he’s done a nice job so far.

“He’s family and proud of him as a player, but as a person, too,” coach Huebner said. “Awesome to have him around and be a part of our football family but also my own family.”

INJURY REPORT

The three defensive linemen starters the Knights are missing are senior defensive end Andrew Esmay, last year’s DIII leader in sacks, sophomore defensive end Daniel Reinke and junior defensive tackle Joseph Dahlberg. Esmay could miss another game or two but is expected to be back again for the Knights before November’s final stretch of games.

“Daniel is out for the year, but Dahlberg is week to week,” coach Huebner said.

UP NEXT

The Knights host Grenville University at noon on Saturday, Oct. 18. Greenville moved to 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the UMAC on Saturday with a 23-20 win at Northwestern (Minn.).

Note: Additional photos will be included in Tuesday’s edition of The Journal.