Things fall into place for MLC

Greyhounds haul out their big offense in victory

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- One of the things that concerned Martin Luther College football coach Denny Gorsline prior to the start of this season was a question mark at quarterback.

But in the first two games for the Knights -- both wins -- that question has seemingly gotten an answer in sophomore Dan Lange who threw for two touchdowns in a 16-14 win over Waldorf Saturday afternoon at "The Bowl" at MLC.

"He (Lange) has simply not made any mistakes in the first two games," Gorsline said. "I don't want to jinx him, but he has not thrown an interception. He is a smart kid -- I will talk to him after a play and he will say 'yeah, I should have gotten rid of the ball instead of taking a sack' But then again it is better to take a sack than throw a pick."

Lange has thrown three touchdown passes this season which has surprised a lot of people because of the offense he comes from.

"Passing is not his forte -- generally speaking, veer quarterbacks do not throw the ball very well," Gorsline said. "But his technique is excellent, his form is good. He will probably not be a Seth Fizsimmons who we had a couple of years ago at quarterback. But then Seth could not run the option either."

Lange is one of two option quarterbacks with freshman Phil Scriver. "He (Scriver) is cut out of the same cloth. But I am really pleased with Dan -- we are not beating ourselves," Gorsline said. "Last year, when we were 6-3, all of those defeats, we could point a finger at where because we halfway beat ourselves. Thus far this year, we have not had those mistakes."

SEASON A SURPRISE TO GORSLINE: Gorsline said that he didn't expect to be 2-0 at this point this season. In the last two years, MLC has graduated 30 players.

"That it is a lot of people to lose," Gorsline said, adding that they had eight seniors -- not a big senior class. "But we have a large junior class, which helps.

"We are not really big -- it was like we were a grade school team playing against a college team. They (Waldorf) were just huge," Gorsline said. "We did a little bit here and there, and I thought that what they should have done was to keep running between our tackles and rammed it down our throat. They did that some, but I thought that they should have done it more.

"They tried to run some option, but we stopped that -we were all over them," he said. "I want to say that we were probably fortunate to win this game. But we survived."

Gorsline also praised the running of sophomore Joel Russow (MVL). "He is a mite -- he is probably 5-foot 8 and 165 pounds but he is really played well," he said. "Last week (in a 10-0 win over Maranatha) we gave him the ball 42 times (for 195 yards) and I thought that those were too many carries for a little guy like that. But he is so elusive that he does not take too many shots.

"(Saturday) we gave him the ball 20 times (for 84 yards), which is more normal," he said. "When I talk to Jim Buboltz (Russow's high school football coach at Minnesota Valley Lutheran), he said that Joel is a good linebacker. But we have so many linebackers -- that is one of our strength. So we tried him at running back and he runs with his eyes up and he has great balance and power."

Gorsline also liked the kicking of Phil Stuebs, who had a 32-yard field goal and booted two kick-offs out of the end zone. "He was outstanding last week and he kicked well again," Gorsline said.

On defense, linebacker AJ Kruse had 16 tackles in the win. Jon Beilke had 14 tackles.

"We got a lot of blue-collar players on this team," Gorsline said. "We are riding high right now."

GREYHOUNDS HAVE BIG OFFENSE DAY: The Cathedral Greyhounds had a big offensive day in a 47-26 win over Cedar Mountain/Comfrey.

They totaled 450 yards on offense in securing the win.

And according to Cathedral coach Denny Lux, many things just went right in the game, such as Jeff Schnobrich returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown.

"It was the type of game where a lot of things went right for us right away and we never looked back," Lux said.

"We fed off of that," he said. "The offensive line did an excellent job as did our backs -- we spread the ball around quite a bit. The passing game was also strong behind Adam Neubauer. We had three different guys catch passes."

He added that the offensive line of Doug Franta, Brandon Mohr, Andy Berg, Al Gleisner and Jeremy Penkert did a nice job.

"We also have two solid tight ends in Andy Klingler and Joe Hazuka," he said. "They (CM/C) did mix up some defenses on us, so our guys had to adjust to blocking schemes at the line of scrimmage, which they did well."

Both Schnobrich and Joey Lux had solid games running for the Greyhounds. "We are not going to let any team key on one player," coach Lux said. "We feel that we have three solid running backs and want the ball."

He was also happy with the defense that allowed just six points through the first three quarters as the Greyhounds built a 40-6 lead in that time. "Coach John Miheve did a nice job with the defensive game plan. We were concerned about this team because of the (run and shoot) offense that they run. They give you a lot of different looks, but the game plan was solid and the kids followed it to a 'T.'

"At different times, we had Jeff Schnobrich and Eric Schugel, who are typically cornerbacks for us, playing outside linebackers. We got more speed on the field," Lux said. "Kyle Reinarts had a couple of interceptions and both Al Gleisner and Jeremy Penkert had good games. Danny Vetter came up with some solid hits and knocked a couple of balls loose."

CATHEDRAL GETS KICKING GAME: The Greyhounds also got a boot in their kicking game when Phillipp Neimeyer, a foreign exchange student from Germany, kicked off. Two of his kickoffs went out of the end zone.

"We did not go into the game thinking that he would kick off just yet, but with the lead that we had, we tried him," Lux said. "He can kick the ball deep and we are going to start to work this week on his field goal attempts. Kicking the ball deep gives our defense an advantage."