Penalties taking points away from MVL

NEW ULM -- For the fifth straight game, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers won a Gopher/Valley Conference football game.

And for the fifth straight contest, the Chargers hit the end zone on their opening possession.

But like the game against Madelia-Truman, the Chargers did not score again until the second half because the Charger offense was shut down.

"We did have a touchdown called back (a 29-yard pass from quarterback Karl Struck to Andy Beilke) on a holding call -- that was a deflector for us because we have been working hard about coming back after that first drive," said Charger coach Jim Buboltz. "We thought that we had it on the board. We thought that we had a couple of close penalties called on us in the game that took points off the board (one coming on a 96-yard interception return by Adam Hoscheit). That is especially when they are tough."

MVL had to wait until their opening drive of the third quarter for their second score of the night. "I am blaming homecoming -- I don't ever want to do that -- but it seemed like our tank was empty at times tonight and they (LCWM) was here with a full-tank and kept refueling."

CHARGERS HAVE TROUBLE WITH PASS: Buboltz said that he was not happy with the coverage of LCWM wide receivers in the game. The Knights took the ball in the second quarter and behind quarterback Matt Sharits (4-of-5, 58 yards) went down and scored.

"Our guys have to learn to trust our safety more -- our cornerback has to play (the wide receivers) inside-out and our safety is going to be there on help. Our interceptions at the end by our safeties were because they were in the right place. The corners have to trust them more."

One of the players who stepped up was junior Andy Beilke who picked off two passes to bring his season total to six interceptions. His two interceptions came late in the game.

Another big play came when senior Adam Hoscheit latched onto an errant pass late in the third quarter and rambled 96-yards for an apparent score that was called back by a penalty.

"That interception was the play of the game because it was fourth down inside our 10 yard line -- it was just to bad that it did not count. He made a dandy play on it."

BEILKE AGAIN STAR OF GAME: Buboltz said that Beilke " has a nose for the ball. We want him to touch the ball. On offense, he will get us the yards that we need (102-yards rushing to bring his season total to 534 yards). He takes care of the ball nice and his feet never quit moving. He is the same speed in the fourth quarter and I am convinced that the fourth quarter is his quarter." Beilke's two touchdowns bring his total this year to nine touchdowns. Combined with his two extra points in the game and two field goals this year, he now has accounted for 71 points this year.

The win became a milestone for MVL as a school as they won their 100th game in football.

Beilke keys a Charger defense that has forced 11 turnovers in the last two games.

"We are plus-13 on the year (in turnovers) so you cannot say enough about that."

EAGLES GET BIG CONFERENCE WIN: New Ulm got a big confidence builder with a 33-21 win over Fairmont to spoil the Cardinals' homecoming.

"The big thing was that we were able to run the ball successfully (233 yards on the night led by Spencer Dickinson's 112 yards rushing) we moved the ball well and did not have a lot of breakdowns," said Eagle coach Rick VanRoekel.

He was also pleased with Josh Thorson who broke off two long kickoff returns. "He had around 150 yards in kickoff returns -he just about broke one (for a touchdown). The special teams did a nice job."

VanRoekel started Jon Koeckeritz at quarterback and "he did a nice job. He made some nice passes and he reads the option well. We have two good quarterbacks (Koeckeritz and Bob Wellmann), and I don't know if we play each a half or give one one game."

VanRoekel felt that the Eagles' defense played a lot better than they did against Waseca.

" Our defense was upset that they allowed Waseca to march down the field in their last possession (last week) and score. I think that Fairmont kind of copied what Waseca did with the unbalanced line. But we shut that down. Fairmont had been going out of the "I" and split backs, but last night went out of the power-I so we have had to make adjustments in-game."

HOUNDS GET HARD WIN: New Ulm Cathedral took the opening kick-off against BLH and scored on a long 76-yard touchdown run by Dustin Hillesheim on the first play from scrimmage. But after that, coach Denny Lux felt that his team lost some of their focus on the game.

"Especially on offense -- we had turnovers, mistakes and penalties (in a 14-7 win)," he said. "That lack of focus kind of played through that first half. I thought that we did a better job in the second half. We did a good job on defense the entire game. The one score that they did have, their kid fumbled and he picked it up and ran it in. It was a good effort on defense but on offense, we have to stay focused on every down."

Lux felt that his defensive ends, Dan Schreiber and Brady Gulden "did a good job on their option. I want to praise our seniors -- everyone expects us to blow a team away. We are in their homecoming game -- it is 7-7 and it would be easy to choke it off and maybe not come out on top. Our seniors pulled the team together - games are going to be tight. These are the kind of games that you need to win, especially in the playoffs. You need to play through some adversity."

"We expect that the mistakes that we made against BLH to be corrected for our game with Sleepy Eye St. Mary's on our home field. Our kids have a good feeling about playing at Johnson Field."