It wasn’t pretty, but Southland’s football team stayed undefeated with a 12-8 win over Onalaska Luther on the road Friday night.

The Rebels (2-0 overall) fumbled in their own end zone with 59 seconds left in the game and almost allowed Luther to recover it for a game tying score, but they jumped on the ball for a safety and held on to thier 12-8 lead.

“We made a great play just to get on the ball,” Southland head coach Shawn Kennedy said. “We did just about everything we could to lose tonight but lose the game.”

Southland took it’s lead when Sam Notterman broke off a 21-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to snap a 6-6 tie.

The Rebels scored in the first half when Chris May scooped up a fumble on the opening kick return by Luther and took it to the house from 20 yards out.

Luther scored with 10:44 left in the third quarter when Joey Leibl had a 2-yard TD run.

STATISTICS

Southland 6 0 0 6 — 12

Luther 0 0 6 2 — 6

Southland rushing: Ben Wolterman, 12-for-42; Sam Noterman, 7-for-34; Henry Mullenbach, 1-for-8; Chris May, 1-for-5; David Schotanus, 1-for-(minues); Mitch Nagele 12-for-(minus 67)

Southland passing; Nagele, 4-for-9, 61

Southland receiving: Alan May, 3-for-42; Wolterman, 1-for-19