MVL defense comes up with big interceptions

NEW ULM -- Minnesota Valley Lutheran's 24-20 win over powerhouse Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Friday night in Gopher/Valley Conference play broke a 40-game conference winning streak for the Buccaneers.

The win was spurred by a Charger defense that forced seven WEM turnovers and held Bucs' running back Dane Roemhildt to only 46 yards on 13 carries in the first three quarters.

The MVL defense held WEM to 33 offensive plays through three quarters, and the Charger offense ran off 62 plays in that same span.

Roemhildt totalled 83 yards in the fourth quarter to end with 129 yards rushing. But when it came crunch time, the Chargers' defense came up big with interceptions by junior Nate Nass and senior cornerback Andy Beilke.

Offensively, the Chargers, who scored just three points in a loss to Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop in the season opener Aug. 30, totaled 325 yards of offense. Grant Holzhueter had two carries on reverses for 67 yards, including a 42-yard touchdown run.

Beilke carried the ball 24 times for 81 yards and three touchdowns, and Karl Struck threw for 113 yards.

"Our offensive line did a great job of blocking," said Chargers coach Jim Buboltz. "Nick Hacker (6-foot-3, 240-pound senior lineman) on the last six or seven plays of the game was putting people on the ground each play. I can't say enough about this team. Our guys came up to the task tonight.

"We want to tell the rest of the conference that we have a good football team here -- a team that will not quit and will play you hard for four quarters. I am happy with the progress that we made in a week after coming off a loss."

HOUNDS LOSE HEARTBREAKER: New Ulm Cathedral coach Denny Lux said the Greyhounds' 21-14 loss in overtime to Mountain Lake/Butterfield-Odin came down to defense -- by both teams.

"Both teams sputtered offensively," Lux said. "But we had our chances in the game. We had good field position midway through the fourth quarter. We had a chance to take the ball into the end zone and go up by two scores, but we didn't. They came back to tie it with about 30 seconds left in the game. We drove the ball down the field and had a potential score in our hands that would have won the game but didn't get (it)."

Lux felt his team played well against the Wolverines. But he was dismayed the Greyhounds couldn't keep the clock running in the fourth quarter. Cathedral's inconsistent ground game was the cause; the Greyhounds picked up only 76 yards rushing in the game.

"We are not moving their defensive linemen out at the point of attack," Lux said. "And No. 2 ... our downfield blocking needs to improve."

Lux said the defense played well, and against a team that scored 47 points against Cedar Mountain/Comfrey in the first week. He said linebackers Joey Lux and Jimmy Vancura were involved and Lux also credited Tom Hazuka for stalling a drive with an interception.

BOLD DOWNS EAGLES: New Ulm High coach Rick VanRoekel knew Bird Island-Olivia-Lake Lillian District "was a good team just by watching them on tape."

The tape proved correct. BOLD shut out the Eagles 34-0 Friday night.

"But I don't think that we came ready to play on either side of the line," he said. They came down and scored on their first offensive series and put us on our heels right away and we never recovered."

The Eagles' offense has managed to score only six points in two games, but that does not worry VanRoekel. He added the offense typically lags behind the defense early in the season.

"We will get it under way here soon," VanRoekel said. "(BOLD) had some big guys up front that were quick."

Kevin Neidecker gained 107 yards for the Eagles.

VanRoekel said that "no one played well on defense. We were tackling too high all night. ... But BOLD is a good team and it will be fun to see how far they go in the playoffs. They have the whole package."

PAA DOES WELL IN FIRST MEET: New Ulm's Amanda Paa is the No. 1 freshman on the University of Northern Iowa golf team.

In qualifying rounds, she shot rounds on 79, 79, 77, 75 and 74 on three different golf courses ranging in distance from 5,985 yards to 6,050 yards.

Paa is the No. 1 player going into UNI's first meet next week at Bradley University in Normal, Ill., in a Missouri Valley Conference meet.