Cathedral comes up big in the fourth

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- In a football game between New Ulm Cathedral and Sleepy Eye St. Mary's, you could not have expected less.

New Ulm Cathedral scored two fourth quarter touchdowns, the last coming with just over one minute left in the contest as the Hounds improved to 5-2 on the season with a 22-14 win over the Knights in Southern Minnesota Conference football.

Dustin Hillesheim added a pair of touchdowns with fullback Tom Hazuka adding a short run. Hazuka had 20 carries for 72 yards in the game.

"This was a heck of a game," said Knights' coach Ron Berdan. "Hats off to (Cathedral coach) Denny Lux -- he and his team played a heck of a game. They deserve all of the credit."

"I could not be prouder of my team," said an emotional Denny Lux. "(Sleepy Eye St. Mary's) scored a couple of touchdowns within a matter of minutes at the end of the second quarter. We had a couple of bad breaks there. We were down 14-7 at halftime and our kids just never gave up. A lot of teams would have said that things are going bad for us so let's call it in. But not these kids."

After a scoreless first quarter, the Hounds would get on the board thanks to a Knight turnover. On third down from their own 43 yard line, Knight sophomore quarterback Jake Bohnen was hit by defensive tackle Brady Gulden who forced Bohnen to fumble. Jeremy Penkert scooped up the lose ball and rambled 19 yards to the St. Mary's eight yard line.

"Our defensive line played well tonight," said Lux."Penkert and (Al) Gleisner and Brady Gulden all played hard. They are just big enough and strong enough where they give opposing teams a lot of trouble."

Cathedral held St. Mary's to minus-1 yards rushing factoring in seven sacks. St. Mary's had 124 yards in the air. Jimmy Vancura had 17 tackles and Jeremy Penkert had 13 tackles, three sack and he caused and recovered a fumble.

From there , it took the Hounds three plays to get the first score of the contest, the touchdown coming on a 15-yard strike to Dustin Hillesheim in the left corner of the end zone.

Hazuka's kick made it 7-0 for the Hounds with 7:52 left in the first half.

The Knights would knot the game using a 52-yard, nine-play drive. Bohnen completed a pass to Matt Mathiowetz that moved the ball 17 yards and into Hound territory at the 35-yard line.

A pair of five-yard runs by Bohnen and Paul Fuchs advanced the ball to the 25-yard line before Fuchs moved the ball two yards closer to the 23 yard line.

From there, Berdan and his Knights reached into his bag of tricks on a fourth down and eight play from the 23-yard line.

Bohnen dropped back to pass and threw a lateral to Matt Mathiowetz who fumbled the lateral. But Mathiowetz picked up the ball and found tight end Tim Braulick for a 23-yard touchdown pass with only 58 seconds left in the first half.

And it took the Knights only 36 seconds to score again. On the Hounds' first offensive play after the score, Dustin Hillesheim fumbled and Rob Brandl recovered for the Knights.

Two plays later, Bohnen hooked up with Mathiowetz for a 23 yard gain that moved the ball to the five yard line where Bohnen took it in on the next play.

Down by a touchdown in the final quarter, the Hounds put together probably their two most important offensive drives of the year in the final 10 minutes of the game.

First, it was a 50-yard, 10 play drive with the big play being a 23-yard pass completion from quarterback Adam Neubauer to Dustin Wilfahrt followed by a nine-yard run by Hillesheim. Neubauer was 17-for-13 with 125 yards passing.

Neubauer and fullback Tom Hazuka toted the load on runs that brought the ball to the one yard line where Hazuka scored from a yard out and his extra point kick knotted the game at 14-14 at the seven minute mark.

Cathedral would use a fumble recovery by linebacker Joey Lux to set up the eventual game-winning score when the sophomore jumped on a fumble by Bohnen on the Knights' 35-yard line. A 25-yard pass completion from Neubauer to Hillesheim moved the ball to the 10-yard line where the duo hooked up for a scoring strike with just over a minute left in the game.

A two-point conversion pass from Dusty Wilfahrt to Hillesheim gave Cathedral a 22-14 lead.

"We did not get the job done in the trenches tonight," said Berdan "Especially in the fourth quarter -we lost the war of field position tonight. Jake (Bohnen) had been sick this week with strep throat - he was not at full-strength."

"This was a team win and tonight, it took all 43 of our players to pull this one out tonight,' said Lux.

SESM 0-14-0-0=14

CATHEDRAL 0-7-0-15=22

SECOND QUARTER

CHS: Hillesheim, 15 pass from Neubauer. PAT: Hazuka, kick.

SESM: Braulick, 23 pass from Mathiowetz. PAT: Failed.

SESM: Bohnen, three run. PAT: Braulick, pass from Bohnen.

FOURTH QUARTER

CHS: Hazuka, one run. PAT: Hazuka, kick.

CHS: Hillesheim, 10 pass from Neubauer. PAT: Hillesheim, pass from Dusty Wilfahrt.