NEW ULM — The Martin Luther College Knights, led by junior defense end Andrew Esmay’s three-sack day, shut out the Crown College Polars on Saturday afternoon at the MLC Bowl, winning 13-0.

The 6-foot-6 defensive end added on to his school record number of sacks, which now sits 16 1/2 for the year after picking up three sacks in Saturday’s shutout. Not only did Esmay pick up three sacks, he also forced and recovered two fumbles, giving him eight forced fumbles on the year and six recoveries for the season. The six fumble recoveries is an official MLC single-season record, passing Justin Krause’s previous mark of four recoveries set in 2008.

“I just want to get the quarterback behind the backfield and if I can, strip that ball out and give the ball back to our offense, just pull away and have them put up points,” Esmay said. “Every time I want to get into that backfield and create some havoc.”

With the grass field being wet during the game thanks to early-day rain, both teams knew they’d have to try extra hard to take care of the ball.

Easier said than done.

While passing was still an option, especially for MLC quarterback Brady Turriff, who completed 19 of 34 passes, turnovers still piled up for both squads. Turriff threw two interceptions in the game and the Knights fumbled it three times, losing two of those fumbles.

But the Knights won the takeaway battle 5-4, led by Esmay.

The Knights took a 3-0 lead into the half after Micah Koschnitzke booted a 22-yard kick through the uprights with 6:27 left in the first quarter.

The Knights scored early in the second half after an 11-play drive went 62 yards and was finished on a 1-yard run by Rees Roecker, who finished with 34 carries for 70 yards.

After a short catch by Knights wideout Corey Tipton, the ball slipped out of Tipton’s hands for a fumble. The ball was then scooped up by Crown’s Gabe Banks and taken to the MLC 16-yard line with less than five minutes to go in the third quarter.

The MLC defense came through, however, forcing a 30-yard field goal attempt by Brock Knick that was wide left.

After Turriff was picked off on a deep pass by Tristan Krank at the Crown 32, Crown quarterback Zach Brown completed a 32-yard pass to Seth Medina to end the third quarter at the MLC 36. Minutes later in the fourth, however, Esmay sacked Brown and took the ball away. Esmay did fumble his own recovery, but Thomas Balge dove on the ball to recover it and give the Knights the ball back at their own 44.

The Knights got their interception of the game with nine minutes left to play on a Matthew Hillmer interception, but the Knights were forced to punt after a three-and-out.

Joey Ehlke then got into the interception column for the MLC defense after the ball tipped off the hands off the intended receiver and into the air before being pulled in by Ehlke as he fell back to the ground. That interception led MLC to its final points of the game on a 25-yard field goal by Koschnitzke.

Late in the game as the Knights attempted to run the clock down, Arthur Robinson took a handoff up the middle for 4 yards but fumbled it away, giving Crown another chance to get on the scoreboard. The Polars’ next drive was short-lived, however, as Esmay got another strip sack that was recovered by Daniel Reinke with 2:10 left to play.

The Knights are now 6-3 but are officially eliminated from playoff contention. They will travel to the University of Minnesota Morris on Saturday for their final game of the year in a UMAC contest.

An extended story with additional comments and photos will be in Tuesday’s edition of The Journal and available online.