Cathedral's 25-8 win over Indians answers some first-game questions

NEW ULM -- New Ulm Cathedral earned a big win Friday night against Sleepy Eye High. And Greyhounds coach Denny Lux and his staff got some questions answered.

Could sophomore quarterback Adam Neubauer do the job in his first varsity start for the Hounds? How would the Greyhounds offense perform?

Would the Cathedral defense be quick enough to stop the Sleepy Eye High offense?

All three questions got positive responses in the 25-8 win over the Indians.

Neubauer was 10 of 18 for 133 yards and a touchdown. He was intercepted once.

More impressive was that the 6-foot-3 Neubauer engineered two scoring drives, one of 44 yards and the other of 59 yards. One of his favorite targets was another sophomore, Eric Schugel, who caught four passes for 59 yards and also scored a touchdown on a 17-yard reverse late in the game that sealed the win for Cathedral.

"(Neubauer) connected with (Dusty) Wilfahrt and Schugel a couple of times on some key third-down plays," said Lux. "And he showed some poise back there for a sophomore."

There is usually one play in a game that will tell you the make-up of a player -- especially a young one like Neubauer.

For Neubauer, that play came on the drive for Cathedral's final touchdown. Neubauer rifled a pass to Schugel for a 15-yard gain. The pass had to be perfectly thrown and thrown with enough velocity to get it to Schugel.

Lux has to be smiling knowing that Neubauer and Schugel will be around for two more years and that Neubauer has the potential to be one of the finest quarterbacks in the area.

Lux also has to be happy with 260 yards of total offense. You add Wilfahrt, Mitch Palmer and Tom Hazuka into the offense and you have a potentially potent machine.

DEFENSE PLAYS WELL: Lux was also happy with his defense, which held the Indians scoreless until early in the fourth quarter. The Indians ran off 44 offensive plays to 66 for Cathedral. Four times Cathedral's defense made Sleepy Eye High go three-and-out.

"Their offense has always been a hard thing for us to stop -- the key was to slow down their passing game and play for the counter," Lux said.

EAGLES GET WIN: New Ulm High Eagles coach Rick VanRoekel said his defense "played outstanding" in their 6-0 win over Luverne Friday. VanRoekel said the Eagles allowed only two first downs to the Cardinals.

Offensively, though, the Eagles struggled to generate yards and points.

"We were in the red zone five or six times in the game and only got it in the end zone once," VanRoekel said. "We need to do better than that. We had a lot of breakdowns on offense."

VanRoekel said the Eagles didn't put the ball on the ground and only committed one turnover during the game -- on their first series.

"But we had some mistakes that hurt. And once we stalled on the 3-yard line. It was fourth and a few inches and we could not get the first down. Realistically, it would have been a three- or four-touchdown game if we get them in."

VanRoekel felt fullback Spencer Dickinson, who had 105 yards rushing, and noseguard Travis Aufderheide played well.

"He was in their backfield all night long," said VanRoekel about Aufderheide.

But VanRoekel felt the big play of the game came from the Eagles' Bryan Kamm on the kickoff to start the second half.

"Luke Gronwald had a nice kickoff deep in Luverne's territory -- their back took the ball and broke through and was off to the races," VanRoekel said. "But Bryan Kamm caught up to him at the 10-yard line. And if they would have scored who knows. But then we stop them at that point.

"Winning our opening game is nice. Luverne is a good team. Now we can get ready for (Bird Island-Olivia-Lake Lillian District) on Friday."

LEGION CHANGES RULE: The American Legion has changed the age rule for participation. Previously, players who were 19 on Aug. 1 could not play American Legion baseball. This year, that rule made Sleepy Eye's Chad Armbruster ineligible.

The rule change moves the date back to Jan. 1. That really will help New Ulm Gold next year. Gold will now be able to play five players who previously would have been ineligible, including Dusty Wilfahrt and Eric Austvold. New Ulm will host the Central Plains Region tournament in August.