NEW ULM, Minn. - After two plays, MLC football had a lead and the football back against Crown on Saturday afternoon.
The Knights started quickly and held on late to take down the Polars 37-29, their second-straight UMAC win.
Quarterback
Brady Turriff set the all-time career passing record in the third quarter on a 13-yard completion to
Benjamin Vasold. Turriff threw for 364 yards on the day, putting him at 5,933 for his career, passing Ben Kuerth's 5,876 yards that had stood since 2001.
"It's cool to [be recognized], but it's the receivers who are making the plays out there," Turriff said. "Noah [Huebner] and Vas getting the yards after catches, it's just my job to get them the ball, so credit to them. O-Line did a great job in pass pro, we were a little light on O-Line today and we had some guys step up which is big."
Turriff found
Trenton Heyn on the first play of the game on a short route, which Heyn took 65 yards to the end zone after breaking a tackle. That was the first of four touchdowns that the Knights scored in the first quarter, three of which were Turriff passing TDs.
Huebner caught two of those first-quarter touchdowns. He had a monster day from his tight end spot, catching 11 passes for 177 yards and three touchdowns. His final score proved to be the game-winner with 2:57 left in the third quarter. His TDs went for 5, 8 and 30 yards.
MLC's largest lead was 30-0 with 8:59 left in the second quarter when
Gabriel Nottling made a 38-yard field goal. Crown scored on the ensuing possession, which was a sign of things to come in the second half when the Polars would outscore the Knights 22-7.
Coach
Paul Huebner said his message to the team after the game was about learning to close games better in the second half.
"College football teams don't quit," Huebner said. "If you think Crown was going to go away and not going to compete all the way to the end then you don't know them very well. So it's learning to battle against guys that aren't going to get down, for our younger guys especially.
"College football games are never over because there's dudes that can play ball on the other side of the field."
The Polars had the ball twice with an opportunity to drive the field and put up a game-tying score. With 3:20 left,
Joseph Dahlberg got his hand on Crown QB Zach Brown's arm and linebacker
Ethan Melso was able to come down with the interception. On the Polars' final drive, MLC dialed up the blitz and sacked Brown twice, one from
Nathan Schmidt and the second by
William Stuebs.
Schmidt wreaked havoc all game defensively, recording six solo tackles and four solo tackles for loss.
The Knights won the turnover battle 3-0, which included two first-quarter fumble recoveries. Crown's Rudy Gonzales fumbled on the Polars' first play from scrimmage, which
Jonah Mittelstadt pounced on. Later in the first,
Carter Bilitz recovered a muffed punt.
