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Courtesy of Jordan King/MLC SID
MORRIS -- Martin Luther College overcame a turnover deficit, finding a way to grind out a 24-21 road win, its first of the season on Saturday at Minnesota Morris in an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference football game.
The Knights led by as many as 14 before seeing their advantage slip away in the fourth quarter. They then went on a 12-play, 70-yard drive that resulted in a 20-yard Gabriel Nottling field goal with just five seconds remaining.
The game-winning drive featured three key passing plays. The first was a pass interference on second-and-10, giving the Knights a first down. Later in the drive, Brady Turriff would find Benjamin Vasold for 15 yards and then Trenton Heyn for 16 more.
Turriff finished with 216 yards passing, which included a second-quarter, 12-yard strike to Nottling. Turriff also caught a touchdown pass in the third quarter on a creative trick play when Turriff handed off to Arthur Robinson, who pitched the ball to Vasold, who found the Knights’ quarterback open in the end zone.
Robinson had another 100-yard day on the ground, running for 117 yards, including the game’s opening touchdown in the second quarter.
The Knights turned the ball over three times in the second half and scored 14 points off of those turnovers. However, MLC’s defense stood up on the third attempt, forcing a long field goal attempt, which the Cougars missed.
Ethan Melso led the defense with eight total tackles, including 2.5 for loss and the lone sack of the day for the Knights. Nathan Schmidt also made 1.5 tackles for loss.
In addition to the game-winning field goal and a receiving touchdown, Nottling punted four times with a long of 54 yards and had three touchbacks on kickoffs.