Brady Ketchum threw four touchdown passes and the Central College defense bent but didn’t break in a 44-13 season opening victory over St. Olaf (MN) Saturday afternoon at Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium in Pella in a game head live on 92.1 KRLS.

After a three-and-out on their first series of the game, Ketchum found Ryan Neu streaking down the sideline for a 70-yard touchdown to start the scoring. St. Olaf fumbled a punt snap on the next drive, and Ketchum took advantage by hitting Logan Mont for a 16-yard TD on the very next play. Logan Sunvold’s first of three field goals on the day gave Central a 17-0 lead, and the score was 17-7 at intermission.

Ketchum hit Neu on a 44-yard strike on the first drive of the second half before the Oles drove down the field to the Central one-yard line. The Dutch had already stopped St. Olaf twice in the first half inside of the red zone, and came up with a third when Hunter Olson ripped the ball out of Jordan Embry’s arms and Ben Crist recovered it in the end zone.

Central’s defense was on the field for nearly 40 minutes and allowed 435 yards on a whopping 96 plays. But head coach Jeff McMartin says that they came up with the big plays when they needed them most.

“The stop down on the goal line to get that turnover was a big play in the second half, maybe even in the entire game”, McMartin said. “I felt like all along, our defense really allowed us to kind of hang in there and keep doing what we were doing and gave us time to kind of develop some things.”

Ketchum hit Jeff Herbers for his fourth touchdown pass late in the third quarter, Sunvold added two more field goals in the fourth, and freshman quarterback Keegan Glover capped the scoring with a 41-yard run.

Ketchum finished 24-of-38 for 360 yards, with Neu catching seven passes for 215 yards. Linebacker Reid Pakkebier made 17 tackles with one sack and one interception.

It’s Central’s 18th straight regular season win, and they’ll take a 1-0 record into next week’s home game against Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The Blugolds rallied for a 30-27 victory over Loras on Saturday night.

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