Falcons' Evans focus of MVL gameplan

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Following opening-night losses, all three high school football teams in New Ulm hope to get their first wins of the 2001 season Friday night.

Two schools, New Ulm High and Minnesota Valley Lutheran, will take to the road for games while New Ulm Cathedral opens its home schedule at Johnson Park.

MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (0-1) AT McLEOD WEST (1-0) 7 P.M.

Two words come to mind when the Chargers meet McLeod West.

Tyler Evans.

Last year, Evans led the state in rushing with 2,726 yards and scored 28 touchdowns. And after a near-300 yard performance in the Falcons' first week, he looks to be on track again.

"He is the key when a team plays the Falcons," said MVL coach Jim Buboltz. "Everything that they do offensively is centered around him and because of that, it is necessary to gameplan everything for him."

Evans' success is due in large part to a huge offensive line that the Falcons have. "They have some big players and some youth," Buboltz said. "They do push for him but the key for him is their big fullback Jeremy Gettel at 210 pounds. His blocking is incredible and his complimentary running is enough to keep most defenses honest even though you say that you are going to key on Evans every play. Gettel can hurt you also."

Buboltz said the Falcons' offensive line "will be bigger than our offensive line. They will be bigger than any defensive line that they face this year. They range from 350 pounds to 265 pounds to 225 pounds. They have some big boys."

The second-year Charger coach hopes to use the same defensive game plan that MVL used last year when they upset Mankato Loyola and star running back Chris Meixl.

"They have a big running back that they like to give the ball to," Buboltz said. "McLeod will do a much better job of play-action passing (than Loyola did with a non-existent pass attack). We have to tackle Evans low and gang-tackle him. We need to know where he is at every single play. Those are the things that we are concentrating on in practice. We will not stop him; we need to contain Evans."

Buboltz said they cannot give Evans the big 50- to 60-yard runs. "We need to keep their offensive line out on the field so that we can challenge them. They do fumble so we need to exploit that."

And perhaps the best defense against Evans is a good, ground-control Charger offense that will keep Evans off the field.

"We need to mix in an equal number of runs and passes mixing in Jake Firle, Aaron Madson and Nate Owens and get them the ball," Buboltz said. "Good things happen when they get the ball. Then we can use Joel Russow from the running back spot. Our offensive line needs to do a better job than they did last week.

"We want to ball-control the game. They want to strike quick. The longer that you can keep them on the field, the more chance we have of capitalizing on mistakes."

Buboltz said Eric Voss (6-foot-7, 270 pounds) will get more time on the defensive line. "He had five tackles and played well, as well as Tom Mueller. We will throw a variety of big people at their offensive line to make them work. But Tyler Evans is the best running back in the state of Minnesota."

RED ROCK CENTRAL (1-0) AT NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (0-1) 7 P.M. JOHNSON PARK

Last week, Red Rock Central opened their season with a 14-12 win over Faribault Bethlehem Academy and this week, the Hounds of Cathedral hope to get their first win of the season when they host RRC at Johnson Park.

"They lost quite a few people through graduation and because of that, they have changed some of the things they do offensively," Cathedral coach Denny Lux said. "In the past, they have been a power football team but this year they look to spread things out offensively so they can thin you out on the inside run."

Leading RRC this year is returning quarterback Cory Fishel. "He is a good athlete and has a good arm," Lux said. "Colby Pack, who was a wingback, is now their tailback. He is an all-around athlete for them.

"When they do throw, they go to Dustin Miller, who is a split end and they also have a nice tight end in Lee Schaffran. Those are the players that we know about. Typically they can replace good athletes with more good athletes."

On the offensive line, RRC is taller. "We need to play quicker on our defensive line and try to out-man some of that height advantage," Lux said.

On defense, Lux said RRC uses a five-man front. "They use a 5-2 monster or a 5-3 team for quite a few years and have been doing that for a number of years."

Lux feels his team "needs to take a big step forward this game. We have to eliminate turnovers, missed blocking assignments and eliminate the things that we can take care of on our end and we will be in better shape."

On offense, Lux said the Hounds "need to mix things up. We need to throw on first down and mix-up the play calling. But No. 1 we have to be sure that we are running plays that our guys feel comfortable with. We need to come out of the huddle and be confident."

He added that the team has responded well. "We will be ready to play come Friday night. We look at the first game (against Sleepy Eye High) as a learning experience."

NEW ULM HIGH (0-1) AT REDWOOD VALLEY (1-0) FRIDAY NIGHT 7 P.M.

New Ulm High hopes to get its first win of the season when the Eagles play their second straight Southwest Conference opponent in Redwood Falls.

Last week, Redwood Valley topped Tracy-Milroy-Balaton in its opening game.

"They took their lumps last year (2-7) with a lot of young players," said New Ulm High coach Rick VanRoekel. "But they are a much improved team. They have a lot of quickness with average size. But after their first win, you know that they have confidence going into our game."

The Cardinals will be the second straight Southwest Conference team that the Eagles have met following New Ulm's 27-13 loss last week to Luverne.

Redwood Valley is led by running back Ben Dahmes who is describe as a "banger" by his coach Matt Lundeen.

"They run out of the single back offense with the twin receivers; he (Dahmes) is good," VanRoekel said. "He has speed for a 190-pounder and if he gets out in the open he can turn it on."

While running is the meat and potatoes of the Redwood Valley offense, they do throw the ball. "They threw the ball 16-17 times (against TMB)," VanRoekel said. "I would assume that they would throw it that many times against us," VanRoekel said.

But the Cardinals will be without senior wide receiver Jason Busack who owns all the career receiving records for the Cardinals as he is recovering from off-season knee surgery and will not return until mid-season.

On defense, Redwood Valley will use a 6-2 or 4-4 defense "depending on what they do with their outside linebackers," VanRoekel said. "Sometimes they will bring them up. Their defense is improved a lot from last year. Last year, we had 42 points at halftime but in their first game, they held TMB scoreless."

VanRoekel feels that his team will have to be ready for blitzes from the Cardinals following the success that Luverne had. "We have focused on reading our keys for our blocking assignments (so) defensively we can make the right reaction."