MOUNT VERNON - Wartburg quarterback Nick Yordi might be his own worst critic, so he didn't crack any big smiles as he walked off the field at Ash Park here Saturday afternoon.

Yordi completed 20 of 32 passes for 232 yards and two touchdowns as the Knights handed Cornell its 29th straight loss in the Iowa Conference, 30-7, in the league opener for both schools.

Yet, Yordi was not happy with his performance.

"I didn't think I played that well," he insisted. "I kind of feel like I let the team down, especially in the first half. There were a lot of plays to be made.

"We had all day to throw back there and the receivers ran by their guys. I just wasn't giving them very good balls."

Yordi missed a few open receivers on long passes in the first half that could have gone for touchdowns, and the Knights (2-1, 1-0) were pushed into the fourth quarter before pulling away from Cornell (1-2, 0-1).

"Nick has high expectations and Nick's a very good player," said Wartburg Coach Rick Willis, who acknowledged his all-conference quarterback missed some open receivers. "He'll learn and move forward, and we certainly have a lot of confidence in him. That just shows the type of competitor he is."

Yordi, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound senior from Solon, has completed 479 of 835 passes for 6,106 yards and 49 touchdowns in his career, putting him within reach of Wartburg's career marks in all the major categories. His favorite target on Saturday was little Matt Gustafson, a 5-8, 153-pound junior from Faribault, Minn., who caught eight passes for 105 yards and two TDs.

The Knights were clinging to a 10-7 lead in the second half when Yordi and Gustafson got serious. Yordi hit Gustafson with an 8-yard pass for a 16-7 lead with 4:32 left in the third quarter, then he found Gustafson again for a 25-yard strike with 4:24 left in the game to cap an 80-yard drive that chopped 7 minutes, 21 seconds off the clock and made it 22-7.

"Nick really took control in the second half," said Gustafson. "Nick does a great job, every week, day in and day out during practice to keep us going. He's the leader of our group."

Wartburg played strong defense all day and held Cornell to just 230 yards of total offense. The Knights stopped the Rams inside the 10-yard line on three occasions, or maybe the Rams stopped themselves.

The Rams drove to the Wartburg 1-yard line in the second quarter and lost a fumble. They got to the 2-yard line later in the second period and missed a field goal (it was blocked). And they got to the 8-yard line in the fourth quarter and missed another field goal (it was blocked again). If the Rams had made that field goal in the fourth quarter, it would have been a 16-10 ballgame with 11:45 left to play.

Cornell had its chances.

"We did. There's no question about it," said Cornell Coach Matt Dillon. "When you get to the 1-yard line, you have to put the ball in the end zone. That's the difference in the ballgame. You've got to finish. You've got to finish drives. We just didn't get that done today."

The Rams were 1-for-4 in the red zone (inside the 20), with their only score coming on a 3-yard run by Shane McNally in the second quarter. "That's unacceptable," said Dillon. "That's just an awful percentage."

Cornell has not won an Iowa Conference game since beating Dubuque, 25-21, on Oct. 15, 2005.

Dillon doesn't like to dwell on the streak.

"We don't talk about it. It's a non-issue for us," he said. "The bottom line is, we just have to keep fighting to get better. And eventually it (breaking the skid) is going to happen, and hopefully soon. Hopefully next week."

Reese Thompson, a freshman tailback from Van Horne, opened the scoring for Wartburg with a 1-yard plunge in the first quarter and he finished the scoring with a 10-yard touchdown with 2:34 left in the fourth quarter following an interception by Andrew Creary.

Creary had a big day for the Knights with an interception, blocked field goal and 10 tackles. He was proud of the way Wartburg's defense responded inside the 10-yard line.

"Wartburg football," he called it. "Like Coach says: They can be on the 1-inch line, but that doesn't mean they're in yet."

Andrew Burdick, Cornell's freshman quarterback from Florida, hit 17 of 30 passes for 161 yards. He also led the Rams in rushing with 34 yards, but threw three interceptions and lost a fumble.

"It's on-the-job training for him right now," said Dillon.

Wartburg 7 3 6 14 - 30

Cornell 0 0 7 0 - 7

First quarter

Wart - Reese Thompson 1 run (Marcus Williams kick)

Second quarter

Wart - FG Williams 28

Third quarter

Corn - Shane McNally 3 run (Andrew Johnson kick)

Wart - Matt Gustafson 8 pass from Nick Yordi (kick failed)

Fourth quarter

Wart - Gustafson 25 pass from Yordi (Williams kick)

Wart - Thompson 10 run (Williams kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

Wart Corn

First downs 19 12

Rushes-yards 41-114 27-69

Passing yards 232 161

Comp-Att-Int 20-32-0 17-30-3

Punts-avg. 4-47.5 4-36.2

Return yards 53 121

Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1

Penalties-yards 5-40 3-20

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

WARTBURG - Thompson 17-61, Lamar Harvey 13-35, Alex Boom 3-11, Yordi 7-9, Team 1-minus 2.

CORNELL - Andrew Burdick 13-34, Charles McDonald 10-26, Vincent Osborne 1-8, McNally 2-4, Alex Macey 1-minus 3.

Passing

WARTBURG - Yordi 20-32-0, 232 yards.

CORNELL - Burdick 17-30-3, 161 yards.

Receiving

WARTBURG - Gustafson 8-105, Jason Roskam 5-40, Levin Helbling 4-34, Matt Wickert 2-30, Harvey 1-23.

CORNELL - Macey 5-70, Harry Herbert 3-34, Thomas Connor 3-30, Chris Lopez 2-17, Kyle Tierney 2-8, McNally 1-3, McDonald 1-minus 1.