Wartburg clinched the American Rivers Conference automatic bid to the NCAA football playoffs Saturday with a 24-14 victory over Central College in a game heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

Both teams scored touchdowns on their opening drive. After Wartburg All-American running back Hunter Classen leaped into the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the one, Central answered with a scoring drive of its own, capped by a nine-yard toss from Hunter Hoffman to Ryan Neu.

From there, the Knights slowly pulled away, adding a field goal and a touchdown in the second quarter for a 17-7 halftime lead. Hoffman made his biggest mistake of the game early in the fourth quarter, throwing an interception right to a Wartburg defender to set up Classen’s second TD of the afternoon. The Dutch found the end zone one last time when Hoffman scrambled and hit Jeff Herbers for a 17-yard score, but the Knights were able to grind out the rest of the clock for the victory.

“Defensively I think that we held up for most of the game”, Central head coach Jeff McMartin said. “At the end of the game we weren’t able to get a stop, but if you look at the whole complete game we did a pretty good job there. Offensively, we moved the ball at times and I thought we took advantage of some things. But we also turned it over and there are definitely some areas that we can get better at for sure.”

Hoffman finished 34-0f-47 for 267 yards and the two touchdowns, and Neu was Central’s leading receiver with nine catches for 92 yards.

The Dutch drop to 6-2 on the season and 4-2 in the ARC. They’ll host Buena Vista next Saturday in the home finale at Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium.