MVL Charges past Maple River

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Minnesota Valley Lutheran remained unbeaten in Gopher/Valley Conference play with a 28-0 whitewashing of Maple River Saturday afternoon.

MVL scored first-half touchdowns on defense, offense and special teams and the Charger defense forced five Eagle turnovers in the victory.

Dustin Lange, Grant Holzhueter, Nate Nass and Andy Beilke all hit the end zone in the first 24 minutes as MVL rolled to a 28-0 halftime lead.

It was a game that brought a smile to Charger coach Jim Buboltz' face.

"We came out early and made a statement," Buboltz said. "We knew that there were a lot of coaches (from the Gopher/Valley Conference) here to see what we could do. And I thought that the offense had a good first half (199 yards) -- we had a good defense. This was a total team effort."

The Chargers, who will head South to Madelia Friday, used a big defensive play by Lange to get on the board less than two minutes into the contest.

Following a sack of Eagle quarterback Rob Olson by Kyle Compart, who had nine tackles in the game, Lange stepped in front of a screen pass at the Eagle 42-yard line and raced the distance untouched for a touchdown at the 10:47 mark. Andy Beilke's kick made it 7-0.

"Dustin read a play that we worked on all week in practice -- the inside screen -- he read it right off of the bat," Buboltz said. "That (score) was so big with such a big crowd."

MVL used the third turnover by Maple River to score midway through the second quarter.

After Maple River quarterback Rob Olson ran 10 yards for the initial first down of the game for the Eagles at midfield, Andy Beilke stepped in front of an Olson aerial and brought it back 19 yards to the Maple River 36-yard line.

It did not take the Charger offense long to put their first score on the board in the second quarter.

On first down, Grant Holzhueter broke off a touchdown run on an inside counter for the touchdown at the 9:19 mark.

"Grant ran that counter well. Brandon Beitlich came across with a good kick-out block," Buboltz said. "And Andrew Shoop -- and I don't know how many people recognized this -- that he blocks down the field so well as a wide receiver. He made a beautiful block and it put Grant one-on-one with with the cornerback and everyone saw what happened."

Less than a minute later, the Chargers would again enter the end zone, this time courtesy some alert special teams play.

Eric Becker's ensuing kick-off got hung up in the strong wind and fell on the Eagle 33-yard line where the Charger's David Nass fell on it.

After Holzhueter was stopped for no gain, Andy Beilke connected with Nate Nass for a 33-yard touchdown pass. Nass broke an arm tackle by Maple River's Nic Stauton and bolted for the score at the 8:26 mark.

"His was big because he has been suffering with some hamstring problems," Buboltz said. "So it was good to see him plant off of that hamstring and get into the end zone. He is such a big target and is so athletic -- when he gets the ball he can run well."

MVL's special teams tallied the final score of the first half -- and the game -- late in the first half when Andy Beilke fielded a punt from Rob Olson on his 21-yard line and broke lose down the right sideline, putting Olson on his back with a fake on the 20-yard line and scoring easily.

"That was just his athletic ability and some good blocking that caused that," Buboltz said.

Neither team would muster a score in the second half as four turnovers -- three by the Chargers -- stopped any scoring threats.

But it was a game where the Chargers' defense shut down a Maple River team that had scored in all three of their games.

"Our (defensive) goal was to put Kyle Compart on their best running side, and you saw from the get-go how many tackles he was able to have," Buboltz said. "We put Tyler (Morgan) over their center; we had Nate Nass out there also, so we had our five best linebackers on the field at once. That is tough for any offense, because those guys can really play football."

Morgan had 11 tackles in the game. Andrew Shoop added six solo tackles.

Offensively, Holzhueter carried the ball 13 times for 91 yards with Luke Beilke adding seven carries for 41 yards and Andy Beilke totalling 32 yards on 10 carries. Andy Beilke was 6-for-16 passing for 110 yards with Nate Nass catching all of Beilke's passes for 110 yards.

MAPLE RIVER 0 0 0 0 -- 0

MVL 7 21 0 0 -- 28

FIRST QUARTER

MVL: Lange, 42 interception return. PAT: Beilke,kick.

SECOND QUARTER

MVL: Holzhueter, 36 run. PAT: Beilke.

MVL: Nass, 33 pass from Beilke. PAT: Failed.

MVL: A. Beilke, 79 punt return. PAT: Nass, run.