Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Martin Luther College’s Thomas Koelpin celebrates a first down in the first half of Saturday afternoon’s Upper Midwest Athletic Conference football game with Westminster at MLC.

NEW ULM — After giving up an early lead after a fumble on a punt attempt in the first quarter, the Martin Luther College Knights were all business from there out.

Trailing 8-6, the Knights rattled off 40 unanswered points on the way to a 46-14 win over the Westminster College Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon in an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference football game.

Less than a week after being named the UMAC Offensive Player of the Week, MLC quarterback Brady Turriff turned in another strong showing Saturday, completing 11 of 17 passes for 210 yards and three touchdowns. Rees Roecker helped set up that passing display with 22 carries for 133 yards and touchdown, while Arthur Robinson had 12 carries for 61 yards. Zach Arndt added a touchdown run also.

Thomas Koelpin was Turriff’s top target as he caught six passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns, while Calvin Burow had two catches for 20 yards and Andrew Raasch had a 15-yard TD grab.

Andrew Esmay continued to be a pain for opposing offenses as he led the MLC defense with a sack and an interception return of 54 yards for a touchdown. Jeremiah Stanton and Micah Koschnitzke also had an interception for the Knights, while Joey Ehlke led MLC in tackles with with five. David Baumann and Joseph Dahlberg each had a sack also for MLC.

Westminster quarterback Keegan Zdybel completed 12 of 27 passes for 150 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions, while Aaron Parks’ hauled in the Blue Jays’ lone offensve touchdown of the game and finished with two catches for 47 yards.

MLC opened the game with a four-play drive that ended in a 53-yard TD pass to Koelpin to lead 6-0. After the Knights forced a Westminster punt, Westminster returned the favor and forced the Knights to line up for a punt deep in their own territory. The snap was fumbled, however, and recovered by Dallan Brown in the MLC end zone for a 6-6 tie. A 2-point conversion run by Kaden Olson was good and the Blue Jays were up 8-6.

Not ones to worry, the Knights got right back on their horses to start the second quarter and finished another four-play drive with a touchdown, this time with a 15-yard TD catch from Raasch. Koschnitzke converted the extra-point kick for a 19-8 MLC lead with 13:55 before the half.

Koschnitzke then made a 29-yard field goal with 6:02 left in the half for a 22-8 Knights lead. Turriff completed a 30-yard TD pass to Koelpin for a 29-8 lead after a Koschnitzke extra point with 1:04 left in the half and it looked like this would be the score heading into halftime.

But Esmay sacked Zdybel out of the shotgun on Westminster’s first play of its next drive, causing a fumble that was recovered by Daniel Biermann with 59 seconds left in the half at the Westminster 18. Three plays later, Roecker found the end zone on a 3-yard run before a Koschnitzke extra point made it 36-8 at the half.

After a rare scoreless quarter in the third, Esmay intercepted a pass to start the fourth quarter and took it 54 yards for a 43-8 lead after a Koschnitzke extra point. Koschnitzke put the Knights up 46-8 minutes later before Parks got his team’s only offensive TD of the day on a 36-yard catch.

MLC (5-2, 3-1) is at Northwestern for a 1 p.m. UMAC game next on Saturday, while Westminster (1-6, 0-4) is at Greenville for a 1 p.m. UMAC game Saturday.