DUBUQUE, Iowa - The Loras College football team lost its fifth game of the season to No. 8-ranked Wartburg College, 40-20.
 
It was a tale of two halves as Loras (1-5 overall, 1-3 A-R-C) was unable to fend off Wartburg (7-0, 5-0) in the second half.
 
Loras' first drive started with a three-and-out, but a roughing the kicker call against Wartburg gave the Duhawks a fresh set of downs. After an incomplete pass and a zero-yard rush, Loras quarterback Will Phillips was sacked, forcing the Duhawks to punt the ball away.

The Loras defense continued where it left off last week. Wartburg drove down the field, but the Duhawk defense stood tall, forcing a punt.
 
Phillips and the rest of the Duhawk offense put on a clinic in their second drive. Starting at their own 13, it would only take a few plays for the offense to get going, as a second-and-11 pass to Brock Couch gained nine yards, putting the Duhawks at their own 29. On the very next play, Phillips connected with Ian Broshous for 15 yards, getting the Duhawks across midfield. A few plays later, Phillips found another one of his receivers, this time Preston Ellis, for 10 yards and a first down. On this drive, the Duhawks drove 87 yards for a touchdown, culminating in a nine-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Guyon.
 
Wartburg started its second offensive drive at its own 20 but only needed a couple of plays to get deep into Duhawk territory, as Justis Bachman took a Leo Dodd pass 54 yards to the Loras 19. On the following play, Cormaic Flynn broke up a would-be touchdown, keeping the Knights scoreless for the moment. After an illegal block in the back, the Knights' drive stalled out, leading to a 31-yard Jaxson Hoppes field goal.
 
Loras' next drive started with an Ellis nine-yard reception. A few plays later, Myles Schumacher snuck out of the backfield for a 47-yard reception. A few plays later on third-and-11, Phillips and Broshous connected on a six-yard reception, setting up a 22-yard field goal by Aiden Konig.
 
Wartburg started wearing down the Duhawk defense, as this drive would be full of short gains, until Joey Anderson took the handoff 31 yards to the Duhawk 13. A couple of plays later, Henry Ivers sacked Dodd, forcing a 34-yard field goal from Hoppes.
 
Loras' last drive started with a bang. Phillips and Guyon connected on a nine-yard pass, but a roughing the passer against Wartburg tacked on another 15 yards, getting the Duhawks to their own 39. The next play got the Duhawks to midfield from a Sai McWilliams nine-yard catch. A few plays later, a Guyon reception got the Duhawks just shy of the red zone. After a couple of plays resulting in zero yards, Konig lined up for a 37-yard field goal, ultimately booting it through.
 
The Duhawks went to halftime with a 13-6 lead, but the Knights got the ball coming out of the break.
 
Wartburg quickly tied the game at 13 two-and-a-half minutes into the half, thanks to a 32-yard rushing touchdown from Anderson.
 
In their first drive of the second half, the Duhawks came out and gained 16 yards in the first three plays, but the drive stalled out afterwards, leading to a Duhawk punt.
 
Wartburg's next drive started at its own 30, but they quickly got across midfield. After a few short gains, Dodd connected with Dylan Swanstrom for a 28-yard touchdown, giving Wartburg its first lead of the afternoon, but Hoppes' extra point would doink off the crossbar.
 
The Duhawks offense came back out, but after an injury to Phillips, Jacob Richtman took over as the signal caller for the rest of the game. His first completion came on third-and-10 to Jimmy Peterson for a Duhawk first down. After a gain of only two and an incomplete pass, Richtman got sacked on third down. Dan Giusto punted the ball away to the Knights, and Swantsrom took it 68 yards to the endzone, giving Wartburg a 13-point lead.
 
Loras' offense looked to lead a scoring drive after the punt return touchdown, but ended up punting again after a three-and-out.
 
Wartburg used another quick drive, as just four plays in, Matt Dufoe took a Dodd pass 25 yards to the Loras 22. Just three plays later, Swanstrom took the end around 10 yards into the end zone for his third touchdown of the second half.
 
Down by 20, Richtman and the Duhawks looked to get on the board in the second half. On the first play of the drive, Richtman found Couch for 20 yards, followed by a seven-yard pass to Peterson to get the Duhawks across midfield. Two plays later, Richtman and Peterson connected again for 31 yards, but just two plays later, Richtman's pass ended up going the other direction after Conner Grover jumped the route for an interception.
 
Starting at the Duhawks 22, it only took Wartburg seven plays to find the endzone from a Dawson Rud one-yard touchdown rush.
 
On what would be the final drive of the game, the Duhawks looked to end the game on a high note. Richtman and McWilliams connected on two consecutive passes, totaling 10 yards. Just a couple of plays later, Richtman threw a laser to Broshous, getting the Duhawks another 16 yards and across midfield. Later in the drive, the Duhawks faced fourth down, but Peterson picked up five yards, giving the Duhawks a new set of downs. Just four plays later, the Duhawks faced another fourth down, this time fourth-and-18. Richtman delivered a strike to McWilliams for 30 yards, down to the Wartburg 4. Two plays later, Guyon caught his second touchdown of the day.
 
Phillips completed 28-of-36 passes for 238 yards and one touchdown. McWilliams led the Duhawks with 79 yards on seven receptions. Hendricks' 10 total tackles led all Duhawk defenders.
 
Up Next: The Duhawks will hit the road again as they travel to Storm Lake, Iowa, to take on the Beavers of Buena Vista University on Saturday, Oct. 25 at 1 p.m.