New Ulm teams look toward Week 6

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Week Six of the high school football season in New Ulm will see one team taking another step toward a conference crown, another squad hoping to throw their conference standings into a tie, and the third team looking to get back on the winning road again.

Friday will see the New Ulm Eagles and Cathedral Greyhounds in action while the Chargers of Minnesota Valley Lutheran taking to Johnson Field Saturday.

NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (3-2, 3-0) VS. WASECA (2-3, 1-2), 7 P.M., JOHNSON FIELD

The Eagles hope to take another step toward a South Central Conference football title when they entertain Waseca in New Ulm's Homecoming game.

Last week, both teams were on the plus side of games with New Ulm blanking St. Peter and the Bluejays defeating Fairmont.

"We really are not sure what they are going to run against us defensively or offensively," said Eagle head coach Rick Van Roekel. "When they played Fairmont last week, they were running an even front (defensively), a four front. Last year, they played a 4-4 the whole time. We are preparing for everything, so we will be ready."

On offense, Van Roekel said that the Jays run basically a double-tight with a slot. "Whether or not they do that ... they like to run the ball more than they pass, so if we can stop their run, hopefully we can get them to do something that they are not accustomed to doing. Maybe throwing the ball a little bit more. They run the twin-set out of the 'I' but they didn't show any of that last week.

"They have a good back and they have Kellen Driscoll at a split receiver or at a wing. They have a couple of guys with good speed."

But perhaps it is not what Waseca does best that matters, but what the Eagles do best. And that is running the ball with Micah Neidecker (801 yards this season) and then throwing the ball with quarterback Matt Schmidt finding receivers Scott Krzmarzick and Robby Geistfeld.

New Ulm, as they have had all season, will have a size and speed advantage and that will continue in Friday's match. "They have a couple of big guys, but I don't think that they have the speed like we have in our big people."

With Homecoming, it is sometimes hard to keep the team focused on the game with all the activities going on. "Last week on Thursday, we had one of the worst practices that we had before a game. But the seniors like to have fun but still practice hard; when the game comes, they are ready to go. Beside being Homecoming, there is still the outright conference title out there yet. It is a big game and I would be surprised if this team is distracted."

CATHEDRAL (4-1, 2-0) AT MCLEOD WEST (5-0), 7 P.M., STEWART

Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux knows that this is a big game for his team.

"It is big game in the (Southern Minnesota) conference; it is for a share of the conference lead," he said. "Our kids are excited about it and they are anxious to go to Stewart."

Stopping the Class 1A, No. 1 Falcons is something that no team has figured out this season. One of the many weapons that the Falcons have is Tyler Evans, one of the top running backs in the area and the best in the Southern Minnesota Conference.

"They have been a running team for years," commented Lux. "Every year they seem to come up with a good running back, and this year is no exception with Tyler Evans. It is going to be important that we keep him between the tackles."

He said that the Hounds "must be aggressive. We know their passing game is the play-action pass. So we need to be ready for that; they are very confident in that aspect. They will play-action pass out of their own end zone and really anywhere on the field. But we need to stop the run and keep Evans from getting outside and make him earn the yards between the tackles."

The Falcons, who are as high-powered as Springfield, will try and "pound the ball at you for a while and try and set you up and run a misdirection play.

"Like all teams, their strength is their linebackers. We know that we have to get into those guys. I think that we match up pretty well personnel-wise.

"This is a game where we are going to have to take some chances here and there; we are going to have to try and keep them off-balance and not let them get to comfortable in their defense and do the same thing to their offense; attack them in different ways."

CEDAR MOUNTAIN-COMFREY (2-3, 1-1) AT MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (2-3, 0-2) SATURDAY, 7 P.M., JOHNSON FIELD

The Chargers may well be in for an air show Saturday night when they host CMC.

"Their quarterback is one of the leading passers in the conference in Brook Christensen," MVL coach Jim Buboltz said, "and they have a big target in Ryan Steffensmeier; he is a big target for him."

And if you stop the passing of Christensen, you have to be concerned about the running of Kyle Marks, who scored three touchdowns last week.

"We are going to defend the run," said Buboltz. "We do a fine job of defending that and hopefully throw a little more into our pass defense."

CMC has been playing " four- and five-man fronts, so hopefully we can get our running game going and with Dan (Unke) back we can do a few more things like play-action passing. We can also give them a few different looks (offensively)."

Joel Russow, the Charger linebacker who injured a knee, will not be back this week. "We will give him one more week to be back healthy for the final stretch run.

"We have to control the ball; to run the ball like we can," Buboltz said. "We have to keep playing the solid defense and put together four quarters. That is our big thing. The two that we took off last week gave Sleepy Eye the game and you cannot do that."