New Ulm, Minn. – Freshman quarterback
Diego Narezo had a record-breaking first collegiate start as the San Antonio native set single-game records for passes attempted and completed and the Crown Polars came back from a 14-0 halftime deficit to claim a 26-20 road win over Martin Luther.
Narezo, who had seen action in two of Crown's first four games, got the start in this one and completed 36-68 pass attempts, both school records. That was good for 342 yards and included three touchdowns and an interception.
The biggest beneficiary of the quarterback's big day was
Isaiah Anfield who caught nine balls for 127 yards. A trio of receiver had touchdown receptions including
Michael Downs (eight catches, 81 yards, one TD),
Terry Warner (eight catches, 69 yards, 1 TD) and
Robert Mabra (five catches, 57 yards, 1 TD).
Running back
Josh Wallace caught six balls out of the backfield and had a touchdown on the ground.
It wasn't just a day for the offense, however, as the Crown defense played extremely well, holding MLC to 20 points, with seven of those coming on a blocked punt.
Rudy Criner led the team with 12 tackles, including a tackle for loss, and had a blocked kick.
Dametre Forshee had eight stops and two takeaways with an interception and fumble recovery.
Quis Icon had seven tackles and a huge third down sack that helped Crown get the ball back for their game-winning drive.
Malek Folston also had an interception for the Polars.
The first half belonged to the Knights, however, hosting the Polars on their homecoming. The home team had a nine-play, 79 yard scoring drive to take a 7-0 lead after the first quarter.
The Knights capitalized on some confusion from the Polars in the second quarter when the punt team went out deep in their own territory with only ten men on the field. MLC blocked the Crown punt and recovered in the end zone, taking a 14-0 lead into halftime.
The Polars responded with the only score of the third quarter, a nine-yard strike from Narezo to Downs with Warner catching the two-point conversion to make the score 14-8.
That set up a wild fourth quarter that saw four touchdowns and two come-from-behind scores for the Polars.
Narezo found Warner for a 23-yard touchdown on the first play after Forshee's fumble recovery and the two-point conversion was no good, tying things at 14 all.
The Knights responded on the next drive, going 65 yards on eleven plays to jump ahead 20-14 after Criner blocked the extra point attempt.
Crown wasted no time firing back, going 66 yards on just six plays, capped by a 23-yard touchdown run from Wallace. The Crown senior took a draw out of the shotgun and found a lane before cutting back to his left and bouncing off three tackles, stumbling, and eventually beating the MLC defense to the pylon.
Again, the two-point conversion failed leaving the score tied at 20 apiece with just 5:08 remaining in the game.
The Crown defense then stepped up, getting their biggest stop of the day.
After a first down on the ground, Crown stuffed two rushing attempts at the line and Icon absolutely swallowed up the MLC quarterback for an eight yard loss, forcing a punt.
After a short kick gave the Polars phenomenal field position at the MLC 49 yard line, Narezo went back to work, completing five straight passes to four different Crown receives and marching to the MLC seven yard line. After an incompletion, Narezo found Mabra for a seven yard score with just 25 seconds remaining on the clock.
The Crown defense survived a hook-and-ladder attempt on the game's final play and celebrated their first victory of the 2022 campaign.
The Polars outgained the Knights 334-259 overall, with some pretty interesting run/pass splits. The Polars held a 363-44 advantage through the air but were outrushed 252 to -29 on the ground.
The win moves Crown to 1-0 in UMAC play, a perfect record they will try to keep intact next weekend when they host Minnesota Morris for a noon kickoff on Saturday, October 15
th.
