Week five sees three games in New Ulm

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- The fifth week of the local football schedule will see three of the four teams playing home games.

Minnesota Valley Lutheran, New Ulm High School and Martin Luther College are all at home this weekend while the Greyhounds of Cathedral will be the Road Warriors.

Here is a thumbnail sketch of this weekend's games involving New Ulm schools.

GIBBON-FAIRFAX-WINTHROP AT MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN, 7 P.M. FRIDAY, JOHNSON FIELD

The Chargers will face the Thunderbirds, who boost of an explosive running attack and a very stingy defense, according to MVL coach Jim Buboltz.

"Patrick O'Malley and Tom Rogotzke are their big running backs," Bublotz said. "They are primarily a running team but they will mix in some play-action passes so you have to be ready for that. But their bread and butter is the running game."

The success that the T-Birds have is because of their strong offensive iine play.

"Their offensive line has been together for a while and they do a good job together."

Buboltz said that his defense, which recorded a shutout last week, has to continue to be stingy.

"We need the attitude that we will bend but not break. We will probably not shut them down but I think that the kind of game that we had last week against USC will help us with our defensive confidence," he said.

The Charger offense will be challenged by a GFW defense that plays a strong 4-4 front.

"They flow to the ball hard and probably have one of the best defenses in the Gopher/Valley Conference," Buboltz said. "We need to work on some plays that will keep them on their toes but they appear to be very quick in going to the ball."

"I think that our performance last week on bth sides of the ball will help us in this game," Buboltz said.

And the game is not only a big Gopher/Valley Conference meeting for both teams but also is a big section game.

"They are in our section and right now they are third in the section (behind BOLD and St. James) and we are fourth. The top four teams in the section get a home game in the playoffs."

Buboltz feels that in order to win, his team cannot give the T-Birds a short field to play on and cannot turn the ball over. "We need to take care of the ball, make good decisions especially on first down and try to keep their offense off of the field."

NEW ULM CATHEDRAL AT WABASSO, 7 P.M. FRIDAY NIGHT, WABASSO

Cathedral coach Denny Lux said that the Rabbits "are a typical Wabasso team. They have speed in their linebackers. Their defensive line has four solid players. So they are that typical Wabasso team."

Offensively, the Rabbits have a few new faces, accoring to Lux.

"But they are still trying to run the same offense that they always have. Both teams match up well in their size and speed but at any given time, they may have seven seniors playing while we will have 10 or 11 on the field so hopefully that experience helps us."

The Rabbits strength on offense is to try and get the defense thinking that the play is going to the strong side of the field and then come back to thr weakside.

"They will try and oursmart a defense with their offensive formations. That may include some misdirections plays. We usually do not see that. Coach (John) MIheve (the defensive co-ordinator for the Greyhouns) will be working on that."

Carrrying the ball for Wabasso will be Adam Hillesheim and Chad Altermatt.

"Those two run the ball well and the also have a solid corps of receivers." Lux said. "We knew that this would be the type of game that we would be in at this time of the year. Wabasso is solid on both offense and defense."

Lux feels that the speed of the Greyhounds is something that they need to take advantage of. "We want to get up the field. We are lookng at doing some things that we did not do the first few games. Our strength is to make sure that we use all of our players because we have some pretty good receivers that can threaten their defensive backs."

But the strength of the team this year has been the Greyhounds' defense.

"We have been able to capitalize on a short field a couple of times because oir defense caused turnovers. Our kids hustle to the ball. I am amazed when I watch films and see all of our players getting to the ball. It seems like they are tackling each other to get to the ball. That is how much they want it on defense. That is their mindset."

WASECA AT NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL, 1 P.M., SATURDAY JOHNSON FIELD

One thing is for certain in this game, One of the teams will come away with their first win of the season.

"They are in the same boat that we are," Eagle coach Rick VanRoekel said. "They are also 0-4 and I think that we are mirrors of each other. They have also had a lot of success and they also have had the same things that we have in breakdowms and penalties. They are hoping that this will be the day."

On offense, the Bluejays will run the unbalanced line and will run the wishbone.

"They, like us, have also moved up some sophomores to the varsity and have a quick sophomore running back. We need to key on him because he is their main player to go to."

"They do not do anything real fancy so if we can do our job on defense, hopefully we can hold then down to a few points."

The Bluejays will throw 5-2 and 5-3 defensive fronts at the Eagles.

"We will look for that oddman front so we hope that we can sustain more drives and have some success."

VanRoekel said that his defense had a lot of missed tackles last week which is something that they have worked on in practice this week.

"I know that the kids are frustrated, perhaps more than the coaches are. We hope that we can break out of our shell and play solid games on both sides of the ball. We are halfway through the season and the missed tackles are more of a mental thing. We hit hard and do good things. Now it gets to the mental part where the kids start to second-guess themselves and their ability. A win would work wonders for us now."

VanRoekel feels that the key to the Eagles taking a win is to not turn the ball over and sustain some early drives.

"Maybe that will set the tone for the rest of the game so we can have some success."

NORTHWESTERN OF ST. PAUL AT MARTIN LUTHER COLLEGE, 1 P.M. SATURDAY MLC

The Knights hope to celebrate Homecoming when they meet the Eagles of Northewstern.

"They have a pretty good team," MLC coach Chuck Hussman said. "We just keep going from the frying pan and into the fire."

The Eagles will run a pro-set offense and the Knights with a lot of twin receivers Hussman said.

"And after having seen our game films, they are going to want to throw the ball," he said "That seems to be the case every week against us with teams wanting to throw the ball."

"We have been able to control the run but we struggle on our pass defense."

That means a lot of extra work for the Knights' defensive backs.

"We are trying to read our keys better than we have been," Hussman said. "What our defensive backs like to do is support the run defense. Last week, we got caught up on the play-action pass. They ran by us so we are working on reading keys and keeping our heads oa swivel. We need to know where the ball is."

Defense will see Northwestern in a 4-4.

"They keep their linebackers off and they do not stunt a lot which is good. If they stunt, that will confuse our offensive line blocking schemes. As long as our blockers know where they should be, that is fine but if you have that hesitation for just a second, that is not a good situation."

If the Eagles do stunt, Hussman said that the Knights will position block them. "We get our people between the defender and where the ball is going."

MLC comes into this game with a big lift beating Westminster on a last second pass which capped a great comeback by the Knights.

Hussman said that a win Saturday would be big for his team. "We control our own destiny. If we continue to win, we should be the champion of this division. But it will be a big test and it is a long road to home."