Morris, MN - The Martin Luther College football team defeated Minnesota Morris in early October 21-14 in game one between the two schools, but the Cougars responded with a 41-7 victory over the Knights on Saturday to avenge their previous loss.

Neither team scored in the first period, as the Knights forced a Cougars' fumble inside MLC territory as Daniel Biermann recovered the loose ball. However, the Cougars did convert on a 5-yard touchdown run from Izayah Boss on their first drive of the second quarter to go up 7-0. 

From there, both defenses continued to play well and make stops and that carried over into the second half where the score remained 7-0 until the 6:44 minute mark of the third period when Minnesota Morris made it 14-0. Following that score, the Cougars quickly flipped the game upside down and were given great field position on their next two drives that came courtesy of a couple of MLC fumbles. 

Minnesota Morris converted on both of the MLC turnovers and scored 21 points within two minutes of game time to go up 27-0.

MLC's touchdown came late in the fourth quarter when Jack Pittenger came into the game at quarterback and found Andrew Raasch for a 15-yard touchdown to put the Knights on the scoreboard.

The Minnesota Morris defense came up with big takeaways, forcing five fumbles and pressured Brady Turriff on a lot of the drives, finishing with four team sacks.

The MLC defense had one player with double-digit tackles as Joey Ehlke finished out his career with 11 tackles and 1.5 sacks. Jeremiah Stanton recorded nine tackles and Ethan Melso made eight stops and picked up 1.5 sacks.

Turriff threw for 136 yards and in the game took first in a couple of single-season MLC passing records including passing yards (1,977), completions (145), and attempts (281) in his freshman season.

Despite the loss to the end the season, MLC finishes out the 2024 season with a 6-4 overall, 4-3 UMAC record and improved upon their two wins from a season ago. The Knights made major improvements on both sides of the ball from a season ago with a host of contributions from many different players.

Post season awards and other honors for various MLC players will be announced in the coming week(s).