Luther defeated by nationall ranked central 35-17
Oct. 17, 2009
Nationally ranked #8 Central College remained undefeated after posting a 35-17 victory over Luther this afternoon in Pella.
"Central is a very good football team," commented Head Coach Mike Durnin "They were definitely more physical then we were on both sides of the football. Although we won the turnover battle, we lost the explosive plays battle. They had 10 explosive plays and eight of them were on runs."
Led by 174 yards on 28 carries by by David Zachary, the Dutch offensive unit rushed for a total of 290 yards, en route to 407 yards of total offense. The Dutch scored on runs of 15 and 29 yards and also produced touchdown passes of 17, 7 and 20.
On the flip side, Luther was held to 274 yards, with 252 coming from the aerial attack. Chris Reynolds threw the football 48 times, connecting 25 times with five different receivers. Darren Oxton had a big game producing nine catches for 115 yards and a touchdown. Steve Thompson recorded his first collegiate touchdown in a Norse uniform, a 13-yard strike from Reynolds on Luther's first scoring drive of the afternoon.
"Central is not the type of football team you want to get into a throwing game with," stated Durnin. "But, because we couldn't get the ground game going, we had to throw the ball. I really felt our receivers caught the ball well the entire afternoon. I also felt our young offensive line did a nice job with our pass protection against a very physical defensive line."
Defensively, Kyle McGivney led the Norse with 10 tackles. George Zacharakis-Jutz tallied seven, followed by Jacob Ryan and Dana Schmitt with six apiece. Ryan and Will Bothe, who was credited with four tackles and a forced fumble, both picked off a pass.
"I was pleased with the effort of our defensive unit." commented Durnin. "They never quit playing hard. Once again Kyle did a solid job for us at linebacker. I felt George and Jacob played well also. Both played hard and Jacob really responded well stepping in for the injured Jason Grimm."
The loss gives Luther an Iowa Conference record of 2-2, 3-3 overall. Central improves to 5-5 in the IIAC, 7-0 overall.
Next week the Norse will host Buena Vista University. This game will begin at 1:00 p.m. in Carlson Stadium. If you can't make the game in person, fan can catch all the action via video stream beginning at 12:40 p.m.
