St. Paul, MN - Kellen Sedlmayer dropped back to pass to give Macalester one final opportunity to either tie or take the lead late against MLC, but
Andrew Esmay and
Daniel Reinke pressured the Scots' quarterback as the Knights forced a final turnover on downs to walk out of the Twin Cities with a
10-7 victory over Macalester on Saturday evening.
That final fourth down stop was one of three turnover on downs where the MLC defense came through with just enough to prevent a Macalester drive from materializing. Last year's matchup saw a vastly different game as both offenses had big games as the Scots defeated the Knights 56-27. This time around, the Knights were able to muck up the timing and rhythm of the Scots' offense by forcing two interceptions and a fumble, while only allowing 255 yards of total offense.
The game had looked like it was going to be a scoreless tie at halftime, but then linebacker
Ethan Melso picked off Sedlmayer and returned it 35 yards to give the ball back to MLC at the Macalester 23-yard line. From there, MLC had a chance at a field goal after the Scots got called for a defensive holding penalty. As a result,
Micah Koschnitzke connected on an 18-yard field goal to put the Knights ahead 3-0 as time expired in the first half.
Following intermission, neither offense got much traction in the third quarter until Macalester got good field position by starting their drive at the MLC 29-yard line. Shortly after, Sedlmayer found Gabe Kasper for the first touchdown of the game on a 33-yard pass in the end zone.
The Knights wouldn't waver despite the Macalester score and put together their best offensive drive of the game after starting with the ball near midfield.
Brady Turriff kept the drive alive with a 9-yard pass to
Corey Tipton on 3rd down and 9 to move the chains and then the Knights dialed up a deep ball to
Andrew Raasch. The 6'6" wide receiver caught the ball at the 10-yard line and ran it into the end zone, using all of his wingspan to stretch the ball across the plane for the go-ahead and ultimately winning touchdown with 10:26 remaining.
David Baumann led both sides with 12 tackles at the linebacker position, while
Tom Balge recorded double-digit tackles once again (10) and picked off his second pass in as many games.
Daniel Biermann clogged up the middle and finished with nine tackles, as Esmay had another solid night rushing the passer, recording two sacks.
Turriff went 16-33 through the air with the touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and
Thomas Koelpin led the MLC receivers with three receptions and 90 yards. Meanwhile, Raasch finished with four receptions and 73 yards including the 44-yard touchdown grab.
With the win, MLC improved to 2-0 and now has a victory over a MIAC school on their 2024 record. Up next is a home game against Augsburg University on Saturday, September 21, at 1 p.m.
