Luther defeated by Wartburg 24-9
Oct. 31, 2009
A couple of mistakes and the inability to move the football in the second half, spelled doom for the Luther College football team this afternoon, as Wartburg defeated the Norse 24-9 here in Carlson Stadium.
In the first half, Wartburg's Andrew Creary picked off two Luther passes inside the the 10-yard line, stopping potential Norse scores. His first interception of the afternoon, he returned 99-yards for a touchdown, giving the Knights a 10-0 lead with a little over six minutes remaining in the second quarter.
Just before intermission, Creary picked off his second pass on the seven yard line, that halted a nine-play, 28-yard drive.
"As with any contest, you need to protect the football," commented Head Coach Mike Durnin. "Unfortunately, we gave away two interceptions that really hurt us."
The Norse defensive unit played solid all afternoon but spent the majority of the second half on the field. Wartburg held the football for 19:31 of the second half, that included a 21-play, 87-yard touchdown drive that took 10:23 off the clock. The Knights also put together a nine-play, 60-yard drive that ate up 4:37.
"I was proud of how our players continued to battle throughout the game," stated Durnin. "Kyle McGivney continues to play great football. Cody Edwards and Bobby Kuennen also did a lot of good things on a very difficult field to play on."
McGivney, who leads the Iowa Conference for tackles per game, recorded 23 this afternoon, including 3.5 for loss. Edwards and Kuennen both had one sack and tallied four and three tackles respectively. George Zacharakis-Jutz and Will Bothe were both credited with eight.
Offensively, Chris Reynolds threw for 233 yards and one touchdown. Darren Oxton led the receiving corp with six catches for 59 yards. Oxton scored on Luther's lone touchdown of the afternoon, an eight-yard touchdown reception late in the fourth quarter.
The loss drops Luther's Iowa Conference record to 3-3, 4-4 overall. Wartburg moves to 4-2 in league play, 5-3 overall.
The Norse will be on the road next week at the University of Dubuque. This game will begin at 1:00 p.m. Fans can catch all the action via audio stream beginning at 12:40 p.m. by Luther College student radio station 1240 AM KWLC.
