Knights face heavy pressure in loss to Auggies

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau
Augsburg’s Omar Madkour carries the ball while pursued by Martin Luther College defenders Tom Balge (4) and David Baumann (8) during a DIII nonconference football game Saturday afternoon at the MLC Bowl.

NEW ULM — The Augsburg Auggies’ pressure on both sides of the ball made for a rough day of football for the Martin Luther College Knights on Saturday afternoon at the MLC Bowl.

Augsburg’s win in the trenches translated to a 438-207 yards advantage and 34-7 win in a DIII nonconference football game.

The Auggies (1-1) sacked Knights (2-1) quarterback Brady Turriff eight times in the win and held him to 22-of-36 passing for 197 yards, a touchdown and an interception. The pressure Turriff saw made it tough for him to look downfield and come up with the big plays MLC needed to match the big plays Augsburg had.

“Coming in, we knew they had a big, physical line,” MLC head coach Paul Huebner said. “I would say the last two years they beat us up, pushed us around a lot more. I think that our O-line, D-line hung in their a lot better than they have the last two years, which was good, something for us to build on. But for our guys, it’s just learning how to battle against bigger and stronger opponents. There’s going to be some big defensive lines we’re going to see in the conference [UMAC], and there’s going to be some big offensive lines we’re going to see in the conference.

“It’s a good test, good for our guys to see where they’re at against a big, physical front with a lot of junior and senior depth. … We don’t have a ton of depth, we have a small program and we don’t have 15 offensive linemen, 12 defensive linemen, half of whom are juniors or seniors that have started for two, three years. We would aspire to have that, but we’ve got what we’ve got and they’re working their tails off.”

Augsburg quarterback Marcus Freeman completed 19 of 28 passes for two touchdowns and an interception. Tyrique Givance had nine receptions for 111 yards Augsburg, while Tyrone Wilson had eight catches for 165 yards and two touchdowns. Will Smith had 13 carries for 84 yards also for the Auggies, while Lamar Webb Jr. had five rushes for 64 yards and two touchdowns.

The Knights’ defense started off strong, forcing the Auggies to punt around the nine-minute mark of the first quarter, but the Knights were unable to get much going offensively after that. The Auggies, however, made up for their first-possession punt in short order on a three-play drive that ended on a 45-yard TD throw from Freeman to Wilson with 4:33 left in the opening quarter. Augsburg had another three-play drive put them up two touchdowns early in the second quarter that was finished with a 51-yard run up the middle by Webb Jr. Augsburg added another touchdown with 6:42 left in the half when Freeman found Wilson again for a 5-yard TD after a nine-play drive. The Auggies went for 2 and were denied, making it 20-0.

MLC was finally able to break into the scoring column with an 11-play, 74-yard drive that was capped off on a touchdown pass from Turriff to Andrew Raasch for 16 yards. Micah Koschnitzke’s kick made it 20-7 at the half.

Webb Jr. had another touchdown run with 7:06 left in the third, this time a 6-yarder, to give the Auggies a 27-7 lead. With the Knights trying to get something going in the fourth quarter, Turriff’s pass left was picked off by Jax Bokman, who took it 44 yards for a touchdown with 10:25 left to play to complete the scoring.

While Turriff saw plenty of pressure, he did spread things out and completed passes to five different receivers, led by Thomas Koelpin, who had six catches for 51 yards. Raasch finished with five catches for 69 yards and his TD, while Jude Pedersen had five catches for 38 yards, Zach Arndt had four catches for 21 yards and Corey Tipton had two grabs for 18 yards.

Reese Roecker had 24 carries for 71 yards to lead the Knights on the ground.

Matthew Hillmer led the Knights on defense with nine tackles, while Joey Ehlke had six tackles and a sack and Jeremiah Stanton had an interception.

Huebner said Saturday’s game was a good test for his players to see where they stack up against better teams, which they will soon start seeing more of.

“As I told the guys, we came into this 2-0 and I don’t think there was any complacency going on, but just to make sure we know we’re not the king of anything,” Huebner said. “Just because we won two games, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got a lot of tough opponents on the schedule, so make sure that we prepare as well as possible, to practice hard, to take care of our bodies, to study the film, to do all the little things that are going to be necessary if we wan’t to accomplish big goals, which these guys have, they have big goals.”

The Knights finished 2 for 16 on third down, while the Auggies were 3 for 10.

BYE WEEK

With a bye on the schedule next weekend, MLC will have extra time to prep for their Oct. 5 Homecoming opponent Minnesota Morris (1-2). The Oct. 5 matchup will also be the Knights’ first Upper Midwest Athletic Conference game of the season.

Huebner said his squad will have to work on winning the explosive play battle on both sides of the ball.

“Offensively, we need to create more explosive plays like 15-plus-yard pass plays, 12-plus-yard run plays, and a lot of that comes down to pass protection, having the time to get those routes to develop,” he said. “Defensively, it’s limiting the explosive plays. Winning those one-on-one battles with good wide receivers, getting home their quarterback on blitzes when we’re going Cover-1, Cover-0 type looks.”