DECORAH, Iowa – The Luther football team defended home turf once again by dominating Knox College 49-7 on Saturday, Oct. 31. The Norse put up 600 yards of total offense which included 492 rushing yards along with six rushing touchdowns.
Trent White,
CJ Walker and
Caleb Songstad each recorded 100 rushing yards or more in the game. Luther competes the season undefeated at home at 5-0. Overall, the Norse are 6-3 and 5-2 in the Midwest Conference.
The first three drives of the game for Luther ended in touchdowns in the first quarter. Walker had the first two rushing touchdowns of the game evading the Prairie Fire defense with a 5-yard rush and 3-yard score. The third score of the game only took two plays as
Trent White took off staying in bounds on a 57-yard run to the house. The Norse were up 21-0 at the end of the first.
In the second quarter, the Norse continued to build onto their lead. The Luther drive started at 10:57 and went 89 yards down the field in 13 plays ending on Walker's 1-yard rush into the endzone for his third of the day (28-0). With 26 seconds remaining before the half, the Norse go the ball back. All it took was two plays as Walker connected with
Bryce Buckley deep down field for the 41-yard touchdown. Luther had a commanding 35-0 lead going into halftime.
Neither team scored in the third quarter. As time was expiring at the end of the third quarter the campus experienced a power outage. However, the game continued on with the start of the fourth quarter.
The next score for the Norse was a 19-yard rushing touchdown from
Caleb Songstad (42-0). Knox answered on their next drive to get on the board with a 2-yard rushing touchdown from Izayiah Hawes (42-7). After the kickoff from Knox the Norse started on their own 25-yard line. On the first play
Ronnie Lemon Jr. escaped tackles taking it 75-yards for the touchdown (49-7).
The Luther defense limited Knox to 192 yards of total offense and Jamarion Williams had an interception for 24 yards.
Tyler Ragan lead the team in tackles with seven total followed by
Conor Baesemann with six.
Trent White had his best rushing game of the season with 168 yards on 17 carries averaging 9.9 yards per carry. Walker had 13 carries for 117 yards and was 6-for-13 on passing. Songstad rushed for 100 yards on 16 carries.
This is the first winning season since 2017 when the Norse went 6-4 overall.
The Norse honored their senior class before the game. Payton Sneddon,
Christopher Jones,
Jermarion Williams,
Danny Millner,
Liam Henry,
Xavier Capton,
Trent White,
Tyler Ragan,
Dane Petersen,
Grant Carder,
Brett Liljedahl,
Conor Baesemann, Songstad,
Sean Medcalfe,
Bronson Knutson,
Jacob Whitehill,
Connor Popp,
Ben Lorence and
Stephen Weiss.
The next game for the Norse is on Saturday, Nov. 14 at Grinnell College with kickoff at 1 p.m. in Grinnell, Iowa.
