Hounds pound MLBO

By PAUL DUNLAP

Journal Sports Editor

NEW ULM -- Opportunity was knocking all night long.

New Ulm Cathedral spotted Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin a touchdown before reeling off 25 unanswered points Friday night, forcing seven turnovers in a 40-19 Southern Minnesota C Conference football win at Johnson Field.

"We knew going into the game that it was going to be physical," Greyhound head coach Denny Lux said. "Both teams played real hard. Mountain Lake wanted it as bad as we did.

"There were times when things swung against us, as far as some opportunities were concerned, but it seemed like both our offense and defense stepped up at times to pull us through."

It would be the Wolverines that got on the board first, though, marching 60 yards in 12 plays for the score. Adam Myers carried the ball six times for 29 yards on the drive, which was capped off by a 8-yard bootleg around left end by quarterback Dusty Schroeder. Nickolaj Gosvig's extra point gave MLBO a 7-0 lead with 7:23 left in the opening quarter.

The Hounds would knot the score later in the quarter on a two-play, 63-yard drive. Quarterback Joey Schugel kept on a sweep for 28 yards before Matt Furth's 35-yard score on a nice cutback move. Furth would be a horse all night long, pounding out 155 yards on 17 carries with three touchdown runs.

"I thought our backs really ran hard tonight," Lux said. "This was our best night running the ball so far. The offensive line did a nice job staying on their blocks."

The Cathedral defense would get on the board next as Brandon Reinarts stepped in front of a Mitchell Schroeder pass and returned it 23 yards to paydirt with 4:30 left in the half. He would then recover Myers' fumble on MLBO's next offensive play, and Furth would get his second score of the game on a 16-yard scamper for a 19-7 lead at the half. Reinarts ended with a huge game -- nine carries for 120 yards and a score, the interception return for a TD, a recovered fumble, and a blocked extra point.

"We had said in practice that we wanted Reinarts to have a big game," Lux said. "We need our halfback to do things for us in this offense, and he stepped it up all the way through. He was involved in every aspect of this game, and it rubbed off on everybody -- our fullback, our quarterback, our line. Senior leadership is huge, and we've got a lot of good seniors on this team."

Cathedral would stretch the lead to 25-7 in its opening drive of the second half, a 6-play, 69-yard march that ended in a Furth 7-yard run with 9:53 left in the third.

"We built a three-touchdown lead, but we also learned tonight that no lead is safe," Lux said.

That proved to be the truth as the Wolverines woke up with scoring drives on their next two possessions. Dusty Schroeder would once again escape containment as he went 69 yards for the score, and Myers pulled MLBO within 25-19 on a 2-yard plunge with 1:49 left in the third quarter.

"We were back on our heels a little bit," defensive coach Larry Wellmann said, "but we made a few adjustments and were able to come through, especially in that fourth quarter. Brandon had a monster game, as did (nose tackle) Joe Penkert. His stats might not show it but he's getting double- and even triple-teamed on some plays."

The defense once again stepped up and forced two more Myers fumbles early in the fourth quarter, the second giving Cathedral the ball on the MLBO 15. Schugel would score on a 7-yard keeper, and after a Hans Biebl interception the Hounds marched 47 yards in eight plays for the final touchdown of the game -- a 13-yard run from Reinarts. Schugel and Jacob Mertz would also come up with fourth-quarter picks, the sixth and seventh turnovers by MLBO.

"We are a well-conditioned team," Lux said. "We wore (MLBO's) defensive line down, and kept pounding at them. That (fourth quarter) is when you have to decide as a team where you're going to go with it. Our backs were to the wall a little bit, but we bounced right back from it."

With the win, the Greyhounds improve to 2-1 on the season. They will travel to face Buffalo Lake-Hector Friday.

"We've learned some things in this game that we can take into next week's game (against BLH)," Lux said, "but right now this was a big win for us because (MLBO) is always a tough team to play."

MLBO 7 0 12 0 -- 19

CATHEDRAL 7 12 6 15 -- 40

FIRST QUARTER

MLBO-D.Schroeder 8 run (Gosvig kick) 7:23

CHS-Furth 35 run (Palmer kick) 1:03

SECOND QUARTER

CHS-Reinarts 23 interception return (run failed) 4:30

CHS-Furth 16 run (kick failed) 3:33

THIRD QUARTER

CHS-Furth 7 run (kick failed) 9:53

MLBO-D.Schroeder 69 run (kick blocked) 6:36

MLBO-Myers 2 run (kick failed) 1:49

FOURTH QUARTER

CHS-Schugel 7 run (Schreiber pass from Schugel) 9:28

CHS-Reinarts 13 run (Palmer kick) 4:35