DECORAH - Wartburg football coach Eric Koehler dug deep into his bag of tricks Saturday afternoon to fool arch-rival Luther.

Facing a fourth-and-2 from inside the Norse 20-yard line in a scoreless game, Koehler called "Circus," a play introduced to the head coach 13 years ago when he was a player at Hanover College in Indiana.

The formation featured Ben Hogan, a 280-pound offensive lineman, split out at receiver, and Eric Bruhn, normally a defensive end for the Knights, lined up as an eligible receiver at left tackle.

The result was magical.

The 6-foot-4 Bruhn hauled in a high pass from quarterback Nick Yordi to continue the drive, which eventually led to a touchdown and a 25-8 win for the 17th-ranked Knights in front of a capacity crowd of 6,604 at Carlson Stadium.

"We've kept it in our back pocket for the right situation," Koehler said. "I ask our offensive line coach, Tim Morrison, if we should run it and our thing is, the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward. It was fun, and it worked. If it didn't, everybody would have thought I was an idiot.

"It's a good play against teams that play man coverage because typically you don't play the offensive tackle man-to-man."

Koehler approached Bruhn about running the play Thursday before a meeting with the defensive line.

"I just thought he was kidding," said Bruhn, whose catch went for 14 yards. "I've been hinting to him that I can run the ball downhill, but he mostly takes it as a joke. It's a good feeling that I didn't let the guys down."

"Circus" wasn't the only wrinkle Wartburg (3-0, 2-0 IIAC) used to beat Luther (0-3, 0-2) for the 15th time in the last 16 meetings. With starting receiver Justin Vetter out for the season with a shoulder injury, all-conference cornerback Nick Weber saw extensive time at receiver and hauled in three catches for 60 yards.

"We thought these guys were going to be a pretty tough team and we might need to throw a little wrinkle in there that they hadn't prepared for or seen on tape," Weber said.

It was a pair of Luther miscues and Wartburg's suffocating defense against the conference's leading rusher that set up both first-half touchdowns.

An errant snap on a punt attempt gave the Knights premium field possession midway through the second quarter. It led to the first of two Kyle Duchman touchdown receptions.

Then, Luther marched to the Wartburg 21 before quarterback Justin Feldt and receiver Tony Brantner failed to connect on a pass route that Josh Faaborg intercepted in the end zone.

"We've got to overcome those critical moments in games, and we almost did," Luther coach Paul Hefty said. "The margin for error is pretty small."

Wartburg capitalized again, going 80 yards in seven plays. It ended with Yordi finding Weber for a 39-yard score.

"We've been playing (Weber) at wideout since camp started, but we were saving him for the right situation," Koehler said.

Weber was also instrumental for Wartburg's defense, which held Tyler Sherden to 60 yards on 24 carries. The senior halfback was coming off a 205-yard performance against eighth-ranked Central last week.

"That was our focus all week," Weber said. "We knew we had to make them one-dimensional. If we got (Sherden) off the field, we knew we had a better chance of getting the win. Everybody up front just flew to the ball."

Bruhn said third-string tailback Alex Boom prepared Wartburg's defense for Sherden this week in practice.

"He gave us a great look all week, running hard and spinning out of tackles like he does," Bruhn said. "We knew we had to get all 11 guys on him."

Trailing 13-0 in the fourth quarter, Luther had another prime scoring opportunity, but Weber stepped in front of a fade pass to Brantner in the end zone and picked it off.

"Wartburg, by far, is the best defense we've played so far," Feldt said. "They just fly around to the ball and make plays. And they make plays when they really need to."

Wartburg's defense, meanwhile, nearly made it two consecutive shutouts before Luther scored with 29 seconds left.

"It's a great win for our team, and hopefully we sent a message to other teams in the league," Weber said. "We're playing really well right now."

Yordi finished with 236 yards passing and three touchdowns for the Knights, who received a 34-yard touchdown catch from Ryan Hoerner and a 17-yard TD reception from Duchman in the fourth quarter.

Still, Wartburg mustered just 77 yards rushing.

"We just played two of the more physical teams, best-skilled teams and balanced teams in our league," Hefty said of Central and Wartburg. "Our defense gets better each week, and I'm real pleased with our play up front. Offensively, we're learning and growing.

"You have to be prepared to be 0-3 unfortunately when you play the No. 22-, No. 8- and 17-ranked teams in a row. Hopefully, that will make us stronger."

Contact Matt Coss at (319) 291-1468 or matt.coss@wcfcourier.com

Wartburg 0 13 0 12 - 25

Luther 0 0 0 8 - 8

SECOND QUARTER

War - Kyle Duchman 11 pass from Nick Yordi (Spencer Herzberg kick), 5:04

War - Nick Weber 39 pass from Yordi (kick blocked), 0:46

FOURTH QUARTER

War - Ryan Hoerner 34 pass from Yordi (kick failed), 7:37

War - Duchman 17 pass from Justin Phelan (pass failed), 4:16

Lut - Tony Brantner 8 pass from Justin Feldt (Jesse Kent pass from Feldt), 0:29

TEAM STATISTICS

War Lut

First downs 14 17

Rushes-yards 29-77 38-81

Passing yards 253 197

Comp-Att-Int. 19-32-0 21-34-2

Return yards 62 5

Punts-Avg. 7-45.9 8-31.0

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-yards 7-77 6-42

Time of possession 30:05 29:55

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

WARTBURG - Josh Van Rees 11-42, Neil Suckow 11-24, Tim Jones 3-13, Team 1-0, Nick Yordi 3-(-2).

LUTHER - Tyler Sherden 24-60, Adam Lamos 4-38, Andrew Lower 1-3, Tyler Bass 1-2, Team 1-(-2), Justin Feldt 7-(-20).

Passing

WARTBURG - Yordi 18-31-0, 236 yards; Justin Phelan 1-1-0, 17 yards.

LUTHER - Feldt 21-34-2, 197 yards.

Receiving

WARTBURG - Kyle Duchman 7-55, Nick Weber 3-60, Ryan Hoerner 2-67, Dan Bauder 2-21, Kyle Petersen 1-14, Eric Bruhn 1-14, Joel Hanson 1-13, Jeff Lahr 1-10, Suckow 1-(-1).

LUTHER - Sherden 7-68, Tony Brantner 4-43, Jesse Kent 4-31, Alex Torrisi 3-28, Lower 2-23, Derek Abbas 1-4.

Tackle leaders

WARTBURG - Jason Lansing 2-13-15, Eric Lauterbach 4-9-13, Ryan Gerardy 3-7-10, Blake Suckow 2-5-7.

LUTHER - Brandt Rost 3-7-10, Alex Mierau 2-7-9, Mike Tangen 5-1-6.