By Josh Staloch
Correspondent
DE PERE – The St. Norbert College football team got back to business Saturday, Sept. 4.
Playing for the first time since Nov. 16, 2019, the Green Knights turned back a well-rounded Loras College team at Schneider Stadium in De Pere with a 21-14, non-conference victory.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Norbert didn’t play during the 2020 season.
“The Green Knights are back,” St. Norbert head coach Dan McCarty said. “It was a gritty win. That’s a great team we played. We knew they were going to be a good team coming in. We have lots of things to clean up, which we will, but football is back and we’re back.”
Green Knights quarterback Ben Kohl had a big game running the ball.
The senior from Oshkosh West High School finished with 116 yards on 20 carries and two touchdowns.
Kohl was 7-for-23 passing for 61 yards but also threw a pair of interceptions.
Also having a big impact on Saturday’s game was Joe Jung, a 6-foot, 200-pound defensive back from Neenah.
Jung tallied five solo tackles and also intercepted Loras quarterback Noah Sigwarth, who was sacked six times in the game by St. Norbert’s defense, in the second quarter.
The interception set up St. Norbert’s first score of the game, a 28-yard rush from Kohl.
Jung had a part in one of St. Norbert’s biggest miscues on the day, though, one the Duhawks turned into points.
Late in the third quarter, with the score tied 7-7, the Green Knights were set to receive the ball on a punt after a defensive stop.
The rolling, live ball hit one of the St. Norbert players.
Loras recovered the loose ball and punched it in three plays later on a Sigwarth run from five yards out for a 14-7 lead.
The ensuing kickoff ended up in Jung’s hands at the five-yard line.
He promptly hit a hole in the middle of the field and followed a string of yellow-helmeted blockers 95-yards to the end zone to tie the game 14-14.
“I messed up on the (punt) play,” Jung said. “I was supposed to be returning the punt. I didn’t call it, it hit one of our guys, they got the ball and scored a touchdown. So, the return was getting us back in the game, making up for a play I blew earlier.”
St. Norbert’s go-ahead drive came midway through the fourth quarter.
It got started with a 23-yard carry by Kohl that brought the team into Duhawks’ territory.
Another 15-yard rush from Kohl later in the drive set the Green Knights up at the six-yard line.
Kohl took it across the goal line two plays later for the final score of the game.
St. Norbert’s Jake Berken finished with eight tackles (six tackles-for-loss), three sacks and one forced fumble with a recovery.