New Ulm teams looking for 2nd wins

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- All three New Ulm teams will try to secure their second wins of the season following victories last week's football action.

Minnesota Valley Lutheran (1-2) will be the only team on the road as the Chargers will travel to Springfield to take on the Tigers Friday night.

The New Ulm High Eagles will open South Central Conference play by hosting St. James Friday night while New Ulm Cathedral will entertain Buffalo Lake-Hector Saturday night. All three games have 7 p.m. starts.

MVL AT SPRINGFIELD

Chargers coach Jim Buboltz said his team will meet up with a quality football team.

"Their quarterback, Ryan Sturm, is a very good quarterback who throws a nice ball and their coach, Paul Dunn, will have them ready for us. We are looking for a very tough game," Buboltz said.

Buboltz added the 2001 edition of the Tigers "is more of a passing team than they have been in the past. It has looked like they have to put the ball in the air and they have no problem doing that with quality receivers who can bring the ball down and have good speed."

Buboltz feels Springfield mirrors the speed that Wabasso has. 'We will try and take the same route defensively that we did against Wabasso when we play Springfield. We want to be able to get a good pass rush on Sturm. We want to stop the run first and make teams pass the ball. With our defensive backs and our good pass rush,we feel that works to our advantage," Buboltz said.

On defense, Buboltz said Springfield will "mix it up between a four-, five- or six -man front. They have multiple fronts and they will do a lot of man-to-man coverage on the outside.. I would think that we would see either a 5-2,5-3 or a 6-2 front.

"We are bigger than they are and a nice thing for us is that we have depth. Our five offensive linemen do not play defense. That is nice because we have fresh lineman like Eric Voss (275 pounds), Tom Mueller (210 pounds) and Seth Hinz (230 pounds) on defense we can come back with Bryant Polzin (200 pounds), Nick Hacker (225 pounds), Tim Nass (185 pounds) and Andy Harpestad (210 pounds) and Brady Lux (205 pounds) on offense. That seems to work for us."

Buboltz said his team is "focused to make a run at the subsection and get ready to play at a high level each week"

ST. JAMES AT NEW ULM HIGH

New Ulm High will open defense of its South Central Conference crown when the Eagles host St. James Friday night.

'They lost to Fairmont on a last-second field goal and they have some good running backs in players like Colby Kaus and linemen like Kory Anderson. Their loss to Fairmont came in the last 25 seconds but it was a game that St. James could well have won," said Eagles coach Rick VanRoekel. "The loss kind of slipped through their fingers and they are a very improved team. We have to come out ready to play like we did Friday, but we cannot come out and make mistakes against this team."

St.James will run out of the twin-wings and single back. "Their single back had some big gainers last week on quick hitters. We have to stop their running game," VanRoekel said.

That will come with some changes that New Ulm High made defensively by moving Tim Smith into the line and Bobby Wellmann at safety.

"We need to be ready to play and the win last week, gave us a shot in the arm," VanRoekel said.

BLH AT CATHEDRAL

Cathedral coach Denny Lux said BLH " is a young team and as they get more game experience, they will get better."

Lux added the Mustangs "have a good lineman in Andy Mathiowetz and a good running back in Andy Moore who is a good, all-around athlete. We have to make sure that we just keep on improving."

Lux said his defense "came out and hit harder last week. Each game we seem to be hitting harder with more intensity."

BLH will use the same type of offense the Hounds saw last week against Cedar Mountain, according to Lux.

"They come out of the I and throw to three receivers. Our game plan (on defense) will be the same as it was last week," Lux said.

Defensively, Lux thinks the Mustangs will vary their sets, often changing from down to down.

Lux feels his quarterback, Tony Moldan "is getting more confident back there with (receivers) Jacob Mertz and Tom Hazuka. We don't feel that we have to go in and do only one thing on offense because we have the passing and the running to balance it out. I think that the win will give our younger players more confidence as the season goes along."