Staff photograph by Travis Rosenau
Martin Luther College’s Ethan Melso chases Greenville University quarterback Peyton Bates (8) out of the pocket throughout an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference soccer recreation on Saturday on the MLC Bowl.

NEW ULM — Despite Autumn’s cool temperatures firmly right here, the Greenville University Panthers made the Martin Luther College Knights sweat late in Saturday afternoon’s Upper Midwest Athletic Conference soccer recreation at MLC.

After the Knights allowed 16 unanswered factors, senior quarterback Max Nordlie discovered freshman Jude Pederson for a first-down completion, foiling Greenville’s comeback hopes because the Knights held on for a 31-29 win.

Nordlie accomplished 16 of 26 passes for 226 yards, two TDs and an interception. Mason Cox led all MLC receivers with eight catches for 107 yards, whereas Pederson had 4 catches for 47 yards and a TD and Thomas Koelpin had two catches for 40 yards.

Caron Oestreich had 13 carries for 72 yards and two scores additionally to steer MLC on the bottom.

After an 0-5 begin to the 12 months, MLC earned its first win of the season on Saturday to maneuver to 1-5 total and 1-2 within the UMAC.

The Panthers dropped to 3-3 total and 0-2 within the UMAC.

“[The win] is massive, it really is massive, for our young guys especially who haven’t experienced winning,” MLC head coach Paul Huebner mentioned. “You get to the purpose, you begin to query yourselves, like, ‘Am I doing the right thing? How come it’s not going my method on the sector?’ So for them, to see some success on the soccer discipline is absolutely, actually necessary as we speak.

“Really proud of all of them but proud of the way the seniors stepped up and kept them together. Again, 0-5, tough start to the season, we’re at a point, too, where all of us start to question if we’re doing things the right way, if we’re doing things the way we should. So to finally get results feels really, really good.”

Paul Garrett carried the majority of the offense for the Panthers as he rushed 23 instances for 210 yards and three TDs.

Greenville outrushed MLC 246-103, however the Knights received the battle by the air and held Panthers quarterback Peyton Bates to 112 yards passing.

MLC held a modest 17-6 lead at halftime, getting a 23-yard discipline aim by Micah Koschnitzke, a 1-yard TD run by Oestreich and an 18-yard TD reception by Andrew Raasch in that first half.

After a 58-yard TD run by Oestreich had the Knights up 24-6 on the third play of the second half, Greenville took 9 performs to reply as Paul completed the subsequent Panthers drive on a 13-yard TD run. Pederson pulled in a 10-yard TD reception to place the Knights up 31-13 with minutes to play within the third quarter, however Paul once more discovered the top zone early within the fourth to have his crew down 31-20.

On the following kickoff, Cory Tipton known as for a good catch deep in MLC territory however let the ball slip by his fingers earlier than recovering it on the MLC 4. Greenville then pounced on the Knights immediately for a security to path 31-22.

After kicking the ball again to Greenville, Silas Steinbrenner made a giant play for the MLC protection with an interception on the MLC 6-yard line. The Knights moved the ball into Greenville territory after that however couldn’t capitalize, nevertheless, turning the ball over on downs after Thomas Linnear sacked Nordlie.

An 11-play drive noticed Greenville again ultimately zone after an 8-yard TD reception by Terrance Brown with 1:46 left to play.

After utilizing their ultimate two timeouts after a pair of MLC runs, Greenville was unable to cease a 9-yard Nordlie go up the center to Pederson on third down, giving the Knights the primary down and the flexibility to kneel the clock out.

“We have a lot of playmakers on offense and today they just made plays,” Huebner mentioned. “We talked, the identical message the final three to 4 weeks is win the second and win sufficient moments, win the sport. And as we speak we talked about — and all week, truthfully — was win the second, however make the moments matter.

“When it’s first and 10, it matters, when it’s third and 8, it matters, when it’s fourth down, it matters. And I think we did a really good job of it. I don’t know what we were in the second half, but we were 6 of 9 on third down in the first half, we were making the moments matter and winning those moments.”

MLC completed the sport going 10 of 15 on third down and held the Panthers to five of 14 on third down.

MLC’s Jeremiah Stanton had an interception for 62 yards to go along with eight tackles, whereas David Baumann had a team-best 10 tackles and an interception. Thomas Balge added 9 tackles for MLC on protection, whereas Koelpin, Joseph Dahlberg and Ethan Melso every had a sack and a pressured fumble. Melso additionally recovered a fumble.

MLC is at Crown for one more UMAC recreation at 1 p.m. Saturday.