Contact: Emily Zadny, Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7970

Box Score

Oct. 12, 2019 – Battling 20 mile per hour winds and dropping temperatures, the Loras College football team celebrated a Homecoming win and its first American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) victory against the Luther College Norse on Saturday, showcasing its run game and offensive efficiency in a 56-21 victory.

Loras pulled ahead early after Trey Simmons ran the ball 23 yards to the endzone, but the Norse tied the score six minutes later after Michael Lorento connected with Andre Atkins downfield for a 67 yard pass to the end zone. Looking to regain control of the game, Noah Sigwarth took matters into his own hands and kept the ball for a 64-yard run on the first play of the new set of downs to put Loras ahead 14-7.

The Duhawks put up the next three sets of touchdowns as Jerry McDaniel ran for two yards to open the second quarter and Ty Bausch ran for eight yards to score on the next possession. The defense also got involved in the scoring as Dustin Harris denied Luther's punt late in the second quarter and the blocked attempt fell into the hands of Brett McWilliams who ran 18 yards with the ball to the endzone, putting the Duhawks ahead 35-7.

The Norse tacked a touchdown on in the final seconds of the first half but Loras responded coming out of the locker room as Sigwarth ran the ball for a 24 yard touchdown with 12:43 to go in the third quarter Bausch opened the scoring in the fourth quarter with an eight yard run to give Loras the 49-14 advantange.

With the wind picking up in the second half, the Duhawks focused on running the ball and limiting its time in the air, including giving Nicholas Farfan the reins to make a pass on a fourth-down. Farfan faked the punt and found Zach Vondra downfield for a 27 yard completion, setting up Sigwarth for his third rushing touchdown of the contest with eight minutes remaining.

A touchdown by the Norse in the fourth quarter was not going to be enough to spoil Homecoming for the Duhawks as time expired and Loras came away with a 56-21 win.

Sigwarth was the team's leading rusher with 177 yards for three touchdowns and was 12-22-1 passing. Vondra had a team-high 27 receiving yards and Hunter Matye posted 24 while Simmons had 21 yards. Simmons also posted 80 rushing yards with one touchdown and Ty Bausch had two touchdowns and 14 net yards.

Chris Miller and Walker Even each had 2.5 tackles for loss as well as eight total tackles. Brett Matye had eight tackles and one interception. Brandon Niemeier led the team with two pass breakups.

The Duhawks travel down the road to face A-R-C rival, University of Dubuque on Saturday, Oct. 19 at 2 p.m.