Cathedral was not intimidated by Indians

NEW ULM -- Despite the 40-14 loss to Sleepy Eye High Friday night, New Ulm Cathedral coach Denny Lux said his team "was not intimidated going against the defending (Class 1A football) champions.

"That was the No. 1 thing that we were concerned about early," he said. "That was not the case. The case of this game was Sleepy Eye's ability to make the big plays and continue to make them on offense, defense and special teams."

LUX IMPRESSED WITH INDIANS: Lux said that for the first game, it looked like Sleepy Eye High was clicking well on all cylinders.

"On our side of the field, it looked like they were playing well. Cody (Walter, Indian halfback) was working well with his offensive linemen and Jose (Saenz, fullback) was picking his holes pretty well. The most positive thing that we got out of the game is that we had 11 players who got their first varsity start; that was huge because we are going to see our biggest improvement between game one and game two."

INEXPERIENCE HURTS: Despite the inexperience of the Hounds, Lux said the team never gave up.

"We were down by a big margin (27-0) at halftime and I was looking at our kids to see how they were going to react," Lux said. "We decided then that we just had to come out of the second half of the game with something positive on both offense and defense. That we did and I felt that we hit with a little more intensity than we did in the first half. Both teams were hitting hard and that is important at this point of the year."

Lux felt Luke Schmitz, who had a 61-yard run on offense and totaled 73 yards rushing in the game, also played well on defense.

"He played a strong cornberback and made quite a few tackles," Lux said. "Jacob Schloman played a strong defensive end and worked hard and forced some people. Matt Konakowitz, who saw his first football action since his sophomore year, did an adequate job at middle linebacker. So we had quite a few bright spots.

"With the score like that, you have to wonder how can you find some bright spots but when you have a young team you need to build on the positive and not be so concerned about the negatives."

SCHMITZ HAS BIG GAME: As written earlier, Schmitz had a big game and accoring to Lux, that is due to his hard work in the offseason.

"He was in good shape this year," Lux said. "Last year, he was hampered by some early injuries that set him back. He is starting to become a leader as far as offensively and defensively. We need to look at what we can do with him on offense and mix the ball around with him and (running backs) Mitch Palmer and John Knisley."

MOLDAN GETS TEST: Cathedral quarterback Tony Moldan got his baptism of fire Friday night against the Indians.

"He got hit a lot," Lux said. "When he was in the pocket they were coming at him with some blitzes and their defensive ends came up the field hard. But he showed some toughness when he got up after some big hits and kept in the game."

WALTER HAS BIG RUNS: Walter had some big runs on Cathedral when he cut back on the Hounds.

"It was not so much as we were missing tackles as was he finding his holes and making those cutbacks," Lux said. "We need to keep our intensity. We did not have a lot of penalities (no holding calls; only three penalties in the game). That is something that we have preached about is staying penalty free. We missed some blocking assignments because of inexperience."

CREIGHTON PREP FINISHES THIRD: While football season is in full swing, it should be noted tha Creighton (Neb.) Prep, which will again play in the Upper Midwest Classic next year in New Ulm, ended the American Legion World Series with a 61-9 record and finished third. And they will be strong next year as 11 players return for next year.