Defense made the difference

NEW ULM -- Minnesota Valley Lutheran head football coach Jim Buboltz said that the turning point in his Chargers' 13-7 loss to New Ulm Cathedral came in the first half.

"We were moving the ball well and had two fumbles," he said. "They weren't the 'normal' fumbles such as not tucking the ball away, but they were fumbles caused by our kids trying to do too much. I think of Danny (Liggett), who tried to hurdle a (Cathedral) defender at midfield after a good, long run. We had a good pounding drive going. We did not take advantage of what we had. I thought that we should have scored two or three times (in the first half)."

KEYING ON LIGGETT: Buboltz said that the Cathedral defense "was keying on Liggett quite a bit. After that fumble, he tried to come back a little bit. He took a helmet in the small of the back on the first run that he had and that did kind of shut him down." Buboltz said that while Liggett was pretty well confined, Joel Russow did have a big game. "He really came out and had a big night (133 yards on 24 carries)."

CHARGERS COLLIDE ON SCHUGEL RUN: Joey Schugel's 59-yard scoring run in the third quarter was the eventual winning points. The run happened when two Charger defenders collided trying to get to Schugel.

"When he (Schugel) came down the line, we were in a 5-3 defense, and when Jon Beilke went after the ball his brother Jake came up from free safety and they collided," Buboltz said. "Joey cut back across the field and the two of them are laying down next to each other. It was a breakdown that led to one big play."

Russow, who had those 133 yards rushing, had 108 of them at halftime said Buboltz. "They (Cathedral) shut us down the second half; we hit a wall in the second half. We tried to get through the wall but it didn't happen."

While the loss to Cathedral evened the Chargers' record at 1-1, it was "only one game," said Buboltz. "We went all week and I approached all week that this is just one football game. We want to win the game to try and go 2-0. So when we got back out to school (after the game) we told ourselves that this is just one game. We have a very winnable game next week (at) Faribault BA. And really, I got a lot of smiles after the game. There were smiles at school; it was just one game."

HOUNDS CONCERNED WITH LIGGETT: One of the big concerns that Cathedral head coach Denny Lux had going into the game with MVL was trying to contain Charger sparkplug Liggett, who had 116 yards in MVL's first game.

"Our defensive ends did a nice job containing him and not letting him get a free release outside on some of those pitches," Lux said. "All week long we talked about that when he is in the backfield, we have to play the whole field. It seemed like when other personnel was in the backfield for MVL, we could really concentrate between the tackles. But with Liggett (in the backfield), we had to change our attack. Defensively, it was a matter of 11 guys getting to the football. I thought that our secondary (Friday) besides playing some key pass defense also came up and made some nice tackles for us."

Lux said that he felt that Jon Enter, who replaced an injured Dan Unke at quarterback, "really threw the ball well. He put the ball on the money a number of times and we were fortunate to knock a number away. I watched films of (MVL's game) with BL-H and I felt that they did not skip much of a beat."

HOUNDS MAKE DEFENSIVE ADJUSTMENTS: Lux said that his defense, under coach Larry Wellmann, made some adjustments for the game with the Chargers. "We saw some mistakes that we made (against Springfield) as far as how our defensive ends were playing. Also, we were in a more of a 5-2 defense which gives our middle linebackers a little bit easier and quicker read. It wasn't so much of the team as the adjustments."

HOUNDS PLAN SOME OFFENSIVE CHANGES: "We did not get into the flow offensive again and there are some things that we will have to look at," Lux said. "Right now, when we make a change in the backfield, it has been slowing us down.

"What we are going to do now is we will leave Mitch Palmer at wingback. The last two games where we have had to make a change at halfback, we have put Mitch there. But we will leave him at wingback, which is his normal spot, and put Luke Schmitz at halfback. That will keep us in a better flow of things and that is what we need right now."

NEW CONFERENCE BLOOMING?: There may be a new conference on the horizon, according to New Ulm High School Activities Director Mark Woodbury.

"Windom High School has proposed to seven other schools to form a new conference," he said. "The seven schools are Jackson County Central, Luverne, Pipestone, Martin County West, Tracy-Milroy, Redwood Valley and St. James. They want to form a new conference in all sports."

He said that, if it happened, would change the face of the Southwest Conference (the only two schools left would be Worthington and Marshall). If that indeed happens, and they are meeting next week to discuss the new proposed conference and the possibility. Woodbury said that if it does happen, the obvious would be to have Worthington and Marshall join the South Central Conference. Stay tuned for more .

EAGLES PLAY WELL: After seeing the Eagles play Detroit Lakes, there is no doubt in my mind that New Ulm will win the South Central Conference this year. They played the top-ranked team even for three quarters and, in fact, was the dominant team for 36 minutes. They will rebound and rebound strong in the future. This team is good, very good.

Column by Jim Bastian, Journal sports writer