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

Box Score

Sept. 14, 2019 – Playing the first night game in recent history, the Loras College football team put on a show on Saturday night for Duhawk football fans under the lights in the Rock Bowl, delighting the crowd with a 42-14 win against the Benedictine University Eagles.

Noah Sigwarth connected with Sam Maloney early in the first quarter for a 48 yard pass to the endzone to put Loras ahead 7-0. Halfway through the second quarter, Brett Matye found the momentum the Duhawks needed, recovering a fumble by Benedictine's Tyler Jarnagin to return it 25 yards for the touchdown.

The Eagles scored their first tally in the final two minutes of the first half after Marquan Limehouse picked off Sigawrth's pass and returned the ball eight yards to give the Eagles the scoring opportunity. Jarnagin ran it in two yards for the touchdown and seemed to gain momentum throughout the remainder of the half, but the Duhawks commanded the third quarter, starting with a touchdown off a 16-yard pass from Sigwarth to Dwayne Emilus at 10:28 and Ty Basuch scampering across the endzone on a three yard rush for the touchdown at 6:04.

Up 27-7, Loras got the ball inside the red zone to start the second half and Bausch wasted no time finding his way to the endzone off a seven-yard carry after Sigwarth ran the ball for combined 60 yards on a single drive. With ten minutes to go, Sigwarth dialed in on Maloney downfield, connecting with the senior for an 82 yard pass en route to the endzone. Benedictine fought back with a touchdown in the final five minutes, but solid play across the board from the Duhawks resulted in victory.

"I have never played under the lights of the Rock Bowl, so this was great," said head coach Steve Helminiak. "Our defense really kept us in the game—we made sure the Eagles had a hard time running the ball against us. I think offensively, we had some of the same issues as last week where we sputtered in the second quarter but pulled it together in the second half. We had some younger guys come in who weren't expecting to play out there this early in the game. Ty Bausch really stepped up for us out there. We were pleased with him.

"Offensively, we are still not where we need to be. We need to be cleaner across all positions. We will build off what we did tonight throughout the week because the conference is going to get tougher and tougher."

Sigwarth was 20-32 for 244 yards, including three touchdowns. His seven carries gave him 84 yards. Bausch had 58 yards and Jerry McDaniel tallied 32 while Maloney had a stellar night, recording 169 receiving yards. As a whole, Loras had 445 yards for total offense while the Eagles had 263.

Defensively, Brandon Ahlgrim had seven solo tackles and Mason Morris had five. Nicholas Farfan totaled 256 yards on six punts, highlighted by a 54-yard punt in the second quarter. Trey Simmons recorded 108 kickoff return yards.

Loras (1-1) returns to the Rock Bowl on Saturday, Sept. 21 to open American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) play, hosting the Coe College Kohawks at 1 p.m. Links to live in-game coverage can be found HERE.