Greyhounds top Indians, 25-8

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- New Ulm Cathedral head coach Denny Lux felt that coming into this season that his Greyhound team had more quickness on defense than in recent years.

That quickness showed up in their first game as Cathedral's defense held Sleepy Eye's offense to 62 yards through three quarters enroute to a 25-8 win over the Indians Friday night in Southern Minnesota Conference football.

Sophnmore quarterback Adam Neubauer showed plenty of poise in his first start, connecting on 10-of-17 passes for 133 yards and a touchdown. Another sophomore, wide receiver Eric Schugel, was Neubauer's favorite target latching onto four passes for 59 yards. He also broke lose for a 17-yard fourth quarter scoring jaunt.

Senior fullback Tom Hazuka contributed a pair of one-yard touchdown runs with Dusty Wilfahrt hooking up with Neubauer on a 10-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.

But it was the Cathedral defense that earned the win for the Hounds.

"Our defense showed a lot of speed," Lux said. "We had a lot of guys with tackles. Sleepy Eye was without (fullback) Jose Saenz (out with pneumonia). But you have to give credit to our kids. they really hustles to the ball. And our pass defense and run defense played well. We only had a couple of breakdowns that gave them a couple of long runs (in the fourth quarter)."

"First of all, I want to congratulate Denny -- he has a nice team,"head coach Rick Gossen said. "They fired off the ball nice. Their sophomore quarterback showed a lot of poise and a good fullback. But I think the biggest thing for us is that we are building an offensive line. I do think that we will be able to run the ball. (And) maybe we should have altered our offense with Jose out. However, I need to give the down linemen from Cathedral credit. They were in our backfield all night."

The Hounds, who will play Mountain Lake/Butterfield-Odin on the road next week, turned an early Sleepy Eye fumble into their first score of the season.

On fourth down from the Indian 38-yard line, Cathedral punter Tom Hazuka lofted a punt near the goal line that was muffed by Mitch Anderson and recovered by Dustin Hillesheim on the Indian four-yard line. One play later, Hazuka, behind the offensive line of Jeremy Penkert, Jacob Schloman, Ted Wolfe, Brady Gulden and Al Gleisner, bowled into the end zone at the 5:48 mark of the first quarter Hazuka's kick gave the Hounds a 7-0 lead.

Cathedral increased their lead to 13-0 with just over three minutes left in the first half when Hazuka broke in from a yard out, capping a 44 yard, nine play drive.

Neubauer ( four carries, 22 yards) Hazuka (three carries, eight yards), and Dusty Wilfahrt (two carries, 10 yards) plus a Sleepy Eye facemask penalty saw all the yardage gained on the ground.

It was the first of three sustained scoring drives of the Hounds in the game. The other two were 59 and 44 yards.

"This is Tom (Hazuka's) first year in the backfield. He will be a good fullback. Wilfahrt did a nice job and Adam Neubauer, for his first time out as a varsity player, really looked good," Lux said. "He connected with Wilfahrt and Schugel a couple of times."

And it was"Air Neubauer" that led to the Greyhounds' third score midway through the third quarter.

Taking the second half kickoff, Cathedral used 11 plays to gobble up 59 yards with Neubauer going 4-of-5 for 51 yards and a touchdown. Completions of 28 yards to Schugel, seven yards to Wilfahrt and six yards to Andy Klingler put the ball on the Indian 10-yard line where Neubauer collaborated with Wilfahrt for a 10-yard score with 7:09 left in the third quarter and a 19-0 lead.

The Indians, who only had three plays in Cathedral territory in the first three quarters, got on the board in the fourth quarter with a 70-yard, eight-play drive capped off by a 24 yard touchdown gallop by quarterback Dan Peterson.

But the Hounds matched that with a scoring drive of their own ending when Schugel broke lose for a 17-yard scoring run on a reverse with 5:50 left in the game.

Lux was pleased with the success of his offense.

"We want to give opposing defenses the same look but attack different parts of the field," Lux said. "In the past, I think that some of our formations have told the defense where we were going with the ball. This yea,we are trying to use the whole field and tonight it showed with our mix."

SLEEPY EYE 0-0-0-8 -- 8

CATHEDRAL 7-6-6-6 -- 25

FIRST QUARTER

CATHEDRAL: Hazuka, four run. PAT: Hazuka, kick.

SECOND QUARTER

CATHEDRAL: Hazuka, one run. PAT:Failed.

THIRD QUARTER

CATHEDRAL: Wilfahrt, 10 pass from Neubauer. PAT: Failed.

FOURTH QUARTER

SLEEPY EYE:Dan Peterson, 24 run. PAT: Sprenger, run.

CATHEDRAL: Schugel, 17 run. PAT: Failed.