Streaks at stake

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Week Four of the high school football season will see the three high school gridiron teams in New Ulm all try to extend their winning streaks.

Tonight, the Eagles entertain Blue Earth Area in a key South Central Conference clash while the Greyhounds of CHS take to the road to Hector to take on Buffalo Lake-Hector.

Saturday afternoon, MVL will celebrate homecoming when they host a power-house Springfield Tigers team at 4:30 p.m.

BLUE EARTH AREA (2-1, 2-0) AT NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (1-2, 1-0), 7 P.M., JOHNSON PARK

Both teams are coming off relatively easy wins last week as BEA hammered Fairmont 43-0 while the Eagles crushed St. James 55-19 to set up the first of two big games for the Eagles. Next week NUHS treks to St. Peter.

But this week's task for head coach Rick VanRoekel and his Eagles will be the Bucs.

"They have real good speed in their backfield and run the ball well," said VanRoekel. "Their big running back is T.J. Stallmann who is quick; he isn't real big, but he is quick and they like to get him outside. They use a lot of motion and try and get their offense outside. Once they get people and the linebackers chasing, they will do a quick little dive with their other back."

VanRoekel said that while they did not see much passing from the Bucs in their win over Fairmont, Blue Earth will throw the ball. "They threw only three of four times (against Fairmont) but last year, we really got burnt on the pass by them. We had some breakdowns in the secondary."

While the Bucs will be quicker than New Ulm, the Eagles hold a decided size advantage over BEA. "I think their front people are quicker than we are, but I think that our lineman are big enough but still agile enough that they will have a hard time with our interior linemen both on offense and defense."

On defense, the Bucs have switched to a 4-3 defense from their traditional 5-3.

"We haven't seen teams like Blue Earth that run a lot of motion, and we need to not give up the big play," commented VanRoekel. "Detroit Lakes and Luverne had speed so we have seen that but we cannot give up that quick score."

That means that the Eagle linemen and linebackers must read their keys properly. "We are stressing that this week; if everyone reads their keys and stays home and do your job, we will be OK."

VanRoekel said that coming off their big win over St. James "is good for us. We lost a couple of heartbreakers (in the first two games), and the kids feel good about themselves. They know that Blue Earth is a top team. But they also know they will not back down."

Last year at Blue Earth, New Ulm had five fumbles and lost 17-14. "We eliminate those (turnovers) and we win the game. We cannot have any big turnovers again this game."

NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (2-1) AT BL-H (0-3), 7 P.M., HECTOR

The Hounds will be favorites to improve to 3-1 when they take on the Mustangs.

"They (BLH) have not changed their offense over the years," said CHS head coach Denny Lux. "They still run out of the I-formation with a wing or a flanker. They also run some power-I, and out of that they will run some reverses."

On defense, Lux said that they run the 4-4, "which has been their basic defense that they have run the last 4-5 years, but they are a team that you need to be ready for. They do some things on the special teams that other teams do not do."

The Mustangs and Cathedral match-up size-wise, with the Greyhounds having the upper hand with speed.

Lux said that he stressing to his team this week that they must play hard. "We do not want to give them an easy down; we want to play hard on ever down," said Lux. "If we are a team that is going to make some noise in the (Southern Minnesota) conference or playoffs, each game we have to get better and each down we need to get better. That is what we are stressing this week. We felt that maybe in the MLBO game we did not come in with the intensity that we wanted to in the first few series."

Last week, the Hounds exploded for 40 points against MLBO, which Lux was very happy with after the offense was not in sync for the first two games. "There is come confidence right now," he said. "And the players that are feeling it are the running backs because the offensive line opened up some holes, and we need to continue to do that. We will work hard on our passing game this week because there will come a time when we will have to throw the ball more. We have the kids to do that so we need to keep on working hard. We will go with what works (Friday), but we do not want to get caught where we are not prepared to thow."

Defensively, Lux has been working Jacob Mertz and Luke Schmitz on cornerback. "They both bring different talents to that spot. One is a good tackler while the other is a better cover man. (Defensive) coach Larry Wellmann, being up in the (press) box, is able to see that there are certain things that we can do during a game to take advantage of things. This year, we have kids who are real adaptable; they are smart kids who are eager to learn.

"This is a game that, as far as we are concerned, we want to play at our top and be intense."

SPRINGFIELD (3-0) AT MVL (2-1), SATURDAY, 4:30 P.M., JOHNSON PARK

It will be homecoming for the Chargers Saturday when they host the Tigers, who bring a high-powered offense to New Ulm.

"They are averaging over 40 points a game and close to 400 yards per game," said MVL head coach Jim Buboltz. "But I have not seen one sustained drive this year by them; they are very high-powered; big play type offense.

"We are going to try and combat that with keeping them on the field. From what I have seen they have only had to play one half of football and that was their first half against Cathedral. Cathedral stifled them until (CHS) lost Reinarts and Furth to injuries."

The Tigers bring a veer offense at the Chargers. "They run the veer and they run it well," said Buboltz. "They have three good backs; a very good fullback and a quarterback who does a nice job. It is a true veer because the quarterback is reading the (defensive) tackles and (defensive) ends."

While MVL has not faced a veer offense this year, Buboltz has when he was coaching in Nebraska. "The three years that I coached in Nebraska really helped," Buboltz said. "When other teams were running something other than veer (across the country) the coaches were wondering what is going on. I am going to try and give them a different (defensive) look that they have not seen this year. We will try and even-man the defense and make them pass the ball."

Buboltz feels that he has two very good linebackers in Jon Beilke and Joel Russow who "like to roam and good things happen. We have good backers also in Danny Bendix, Sam Hunter ... the veer is successful when the linemen get a chance to get down to the linebackers. If a linebacker gets blocked, the veer is successful. If the linebacker gets to roam and the linemen get occupied, then your linebackers will have a big day."

And defense has been the one of the strengths this year of MVL. "We have had good tackling; we have not missed tackles. Again, we are led by our linebackers in Beilke (17 tackles a game) and Russow (13 tackles a game). We are sparked by our linebackers."

On offense, the Chargers have had a running back gain 100 yards or more, "which should allow us to get our play-action passing going. Our offensive line has done a good job."