Roseville, MN - The Martin Luther College football team played a pivotal conference game at Northwestern on Saturday afternoon, needing a win to remain in good shape for the UMAC regular season title, but were unable to get past the Eagles and lost 35-7.

The Knights traded blows for a good chunk of the first half as the score remained 0-0 up until the Eagles put together a 13-play, 85-yard drive that finished with a touchdown pass from Caden Cantrell to Trey Ulmer with 4:29 remaining in the second period.

Still, MLC stayed with Northwestern heading into the third quarter and the score would be 7-0 until Michael Montoya ran it in from the 1-yard line. From there, the game would flip heavily and quickly in favor of the Eagles as they'd score on a 48-yard punt return for a touchdown and a 35-yard interception return for a touchdown to make it 28-0 all within four minutes of each other.

Those two plays proved costly for the Knights and they wouldn't be able to overcome them despite a touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 3-yard touchdown pass from Brady Turriff to Jude Pederson.

Overall, the MLC defense kept the passing attack of Cantrell to Beau Burk to limited action, but the Eagles' received a big boost from their running back, Sivert Klefsaas, who rushed for 197 yards and a touchdown.

Rees Roecker led MLC in rushing with 59 yards, while Pederson had 41 yards and a touchdown on three receptions. 

Thomas Balge had a season-high in tackles (15) to lead the MLC defense that played well despite the final result on the scoreboard. Linebacker Ethan Melso found himself near the ball all game long and came away with two interceptions to go along with eight tackles. Safety Aiden Zirbel also recorded eight stops.

MLC (5-3, 3-2) will look to get back to its winning ways next Saturday, November 9, when they host Crown at 1 p.m.