Turnovers continue to haunt New Ulm

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- One of the reasons -- besides a great blocking scheme by Red Rock Central -- that initially hurt New Ulm Cathedral in the early part of its 35-6 win over the Falcons Friday night was that two players, Dan Kuehn and Andy Braulick were making their first extended appearance at defensive tackles in a varsity football game.

"We did a nice job after their first offensive series," Greyhounds defensive coordinator John Miheve. "We did not make a lot of (defensive) adjustments. I think that both Dan and Andy needed to get a little bit of salt and they did on that first drive. After that, they both played a pretty good drive the rest of the way."

The Cathedral defense - after Red Rock Central's initial drive of 69 total yards, held the Falcons to only 42 yards the rest of the game.

Perhaps the turning point of the game came with less than a minute left in the first half when the Hounds took over on their own 41-yard line with 18 seconds left in the half. Instead of heading into halftime with a 7-6 lead, the Hounds and head coach Denny Lux decided to try and put some more points on the board. "We were able to set ourselves up that we knew if we got a first down we were going to spike the ball - get another first down and spike the ball."

That philosophy moved the ball to the Falcon six yard line with three seconds left in the half from where quarterback Adam Neubauer found Eric Schugel for a score as time expired.

'That score really brought them down, ":said Danny Vetter who had an interception and also caught a key pass in that drive for 36 yards. "That helped so much -our whole team was just pumped after that."

Lux said that the Hounds gave Red Rock Central some momentum early in the game when, after a 56-yard kickoff return by Jeff Schnobrich down to the Falcon 33-yard line, their drive stalled after failing on a fourth down and eight situation. "That seemed to be momentum to their side. They came down and scored and put us in position that we have not been in yet this year."

But the Hounds recovered. "The kids pulled together and really played a heck of a second half,'said Lux. It was also a game where Ilene Fahle became the answer of a trivia question years from now when she became the first female kicker to kick an extra point in a high school football game at Johnson Field as the rightfooted soccer style kicker booted an extra point at the 9:10 mark of the second quarter. She made two of her next three extra points.

EAGLES BOTHERED BY TURNOVERS: New Ulm High School football coach said that turnovers - especially in the second half - doomed the Eagles to their third straight defeat. "We threw two interceptions and two fumbles and BOLD converted all of those into second half touchdowns,": he said. "On the interceptions, (quarterback) Joey Geistfeld got hit and returned one for a score."

"We had our pass protection break down at times and we fumbled a snap and a punt. We also had a hard time defensively shutting them down. We did not get the defensive plays when we needed them. We did not stop them on fourth down and short and they scored on that -instead of being our ball on downs, they scored. It was frustrating at times because we played well at times. It sounds like a broken record -we play well but then turn the ball over. We did not have a lot of penalties."

He said that the inexperience again showed it's face. "We had more people get game experience. We are getting to the point now where we will get a set line-up and go with it. The kids need to keep their heads up and be positive. We are really ready for a home game after three road games." New Ulm hosts St. James on Friday night.

CHARGERS NOT READY TO PLAY: Minnesota Valley Lutheran football coach Jim Buboltz said that NRHEG "came out with a purpose and we were not ready to match that.'

NRHEG topped MVL 27-9. 'We were not ready for the game coming off of the bus."

"They did switch blocking schemes on us but our defense did not step up to the call. We had missed opportunities -we had the ball inside their 20 yard line four times and inside their 10 yard line twice and came away with no points. You need to put points on the board in a game like that."

Buboltz said Ryan Timm was held to 83 yards "most of them came in the third quarter" He added that quarterback Jake Unke had a good - not great game. "He ran the option well. But if there was one player who played well on defense it was Luke Beilke. We need to have all 11 players on that page next game."

The loss also ended a nine game Gopher/Valley Conference winning streak by MVL. "It was a nice run but now we need to start another run."