St. Paul, MN - The Martin Luther College football suffered a 21-14 loss at Northwestern on Saturday afternoon.

MLC entered its contest with the Eagles following back-to-back conference wins and looked to split the seasons series with Northwestern in a game that did not count towards conference standings.

In late September, the Eagles won in an offensive shootout, but this time around the two teams would play in a much different style, with both defenses making adjustments from the previous matchup. 

Despite the loss, MLC held Caden Cantrell to just 139 yards through the air, which was a vast improvement from his previous performance against the Knights, where he threw for 459 yards.

The MLC defense also held the Eagles rushing attack to 107 yards and only gave up the 14 points, with the other touchdown coming from a 36-yard blocked punt return for touchdown towards the end of the first quarter.

After Northwestern went up 21-0 to begin the second half, the MLC offense caught a break with a forced fumble by Reagan Moore. Thomas Balge recovered the ball 41 yards to the Northwestern six yard line, putting the the Knights offense in good field position for a 2-yard touchdown run from Max Nordlie.

MLC made it 21-14 with 4:28 remaining in the game when they put together a touchdown drive of 15 yards and 79 yards that was finished off with a 4-yard touchdown grab from Mason Cox.

Following the Cox touchdown, the MLC defense did their job and forced an Eagles' punt, but the next offensive possession for the Knights would be derailed by an offensive pass interference penalty and a couple of sacks that ultimately sealed their fate.

Cox would finish with a career-high 12 receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown, while Rees Roecker led the Knights on the ground with 12 carries for 56 yards.

Joseph Ehlke had a team-high 12 tackles, while his fellow linebackers (Balge and Moore) recorded eight and nine tackles respectively.

MLC (2-6, 2-2) will move on to play their final home contest of the season, when they face off with Minnesota Morris, who leads the UMAC with a 3-0 conference record. The two teams will meet Saturday, November 4, at 1 p.m.