Homecoming games highlight week four

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Week four of the high school football season will see all three New Ulm high schools involved in homecoming games.

New Ulm Cathedral and Minnesota Valley Lutheran will have Homecoming games Friday and Saturday afternoon respectively while the Eagles will travel to St. James for the Saints' homecoming game.

NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL AT ST. JAMES, 7 P.M.

Both the Eagles and the Saints open South Central Conference play at St. James.

Eagle coach Rick VanRoekel knows that the big key to stopping the Saints will be keeping an eye on Tyler Kaus.

"I don't think that you can shut him down completely," VanRoekel said. "But if you can slow him down that will be a big factor in the game."

The Saints, according to VanRoekel "play good defense at times while other times, they had a couple of breakdowns against Renville County West. I thought that St. James outplayed (Renville County West) but St. James ended up losing the game. I don't think that St. James has a lot of depth -- they have some good personnel though."

Kaus will do the bulk of the work, getting the ball 70-75 percent of the time on offense.

"I think that he carried the ball 33 times last game," VanRoekel said. "They try to get him involved in their offense -- if you have a weapon like him, you want him touching the ball as many times as he can. Where Kaus is is where everyone else goes."

VanRoekel said that Kaus has not thrown the ball yet this season, but that doesn't mean he can't.

"They have thrown the halfback pass," VanRoekel said. "We have been fooled on a few trick plays so far this season, so I think that is something that they are looking at."

Kaus will also be used as a decoy. "That can work to their advantage too, because everyone is so focused on Kaus that you can lose fact that they have a good young fullback," he said. "A lot of their people get overshadowed by Kaus."

St. James will show a five-man front on defense and is smaller than the Eagles. But the Saints do have one player who is 6-foot 3, 260 pounds.

While St, James has Kaus, the Eagles have weapons of their own in Kevin Neidecker, Spencer Dickinson, quarterback Jon Koeckeritz and wide receivers John Besser and Brett Burgau.

"We have been fortunate that besides running the ball we can also throw the ball," VanRoekel said. "We had three touchdown passes last week, and we have not thrown that much to our tight ends (Jay Smith or Brian Kamm), so we cannot forget them. It is nice to have a both a running and passing game."

MCLEOD WEST AT NEW ULM CATHEDRAL, JOHNSON FIELD, 7 P.M. FRIDAY

Homecoming brings McLeod West to Johnson Field to meet the Greyhounds.

"They are a typical McLeod West team where they want to be physical," Cathedral coach Denny Lux said. "They run the Power-I, which has been which has been a good offense for them over the years."

While the Falcons are known for running the ball, Lux feels that this season, McLeod West may be using the air ways more.

"They are throwing the ball more now than they have [recently]," he said. "They have a sophomore quarterback that has a lot of speed and a good arm -- they look like a team that is not afraid to go to the pass more and earlier in the game.

"But we need to first off stop the run ... we have to have a good read on their tight ends and keep their quarterback contained."

The Greyhounds' offense will see larger players with four-year starter Reggie Vacek and three-year starter Nathan Benson.

"They have good size guys on the inside three and from there they have fullback guys who are playing linebackers," Lux said. "They have good speed there -- one of their strengths is their secondary."

But Lux said that speed-wise both teams match up well.

He said that an indication of how even the Southern Minnesota Conference is was last week's game when McLeod West lost a close game to Sleepy Eye Public.

"I don't know that there are two or three teams that are above the rest," he said. "On any given night, you will see any team cone out on top."

Lux is happy with the play of both his offense and defense. He said that Cathedral has put focus on defense and has moved people around adjusting for this game.

Lux feels that the key to this game is that the first-time varsity starters for the Greyhounds need to outplay the Falcons'.

MAPLE RIVER AT MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN, JOHNSON FIELD, 2 P.M. SATURDAY

Maple River and MVL are on opposite sides of the spectrum in the Gopher/Valley Conference. Maple River is 0-3 while the Chargers are 3-0.

"They have lost three very close games -- all of them by a touchdown or less," said Charger coach Jim Buboltz, whose team will celebrate Homecoming and also MVL's 25th anniversary Saturday. "They also have good size and good speed."

Many coaches are a little leery about playing a winless team. But Buboltz feels that his team needs to understand that the Eagles are a good football team.

Buboltz knows that his team will not look past Maple River.

"We have some goals in the (Gopher/Valley) Conference and in the section.In order to get those goals accomplished, we need to win these type of games.

"Now, being 0-3 they are really going to be hungry for a win," he said. "We actually have to prepare harder for them."

The Eagles come into the game showing a new offense. "The new offense has to be run pretty well." Buboltz said. "The right decisions have to be made in order for it to work and right now, they are making the wrong decisions."

Maple River has some size on defense in the front line "but if we can get to the second level, get Andy (Beilke, quarterback) outside, we are in good shape," he said.

"We [also] need to force turnovers -- they run a shotgun offense and have a tendency to put the ball on the ground," he said. "We need to cut down on our turnovers and keep up our good special teams play."

He knows that all the celebrations at MVL will be distracting, but his team needs to remain focused.

(NOTE: For a detailed look at how the MVL football coaches prepare for Maple River with their game plan, read Jim Bastian's column on Sunday.)