Rabbits win with fourth quarter surgeSamyn helps Wabasso to 14-6 victory

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Coming into Wednesday night's showdown with New Ulm Cathedral, Wabasso knew that it was a must-win game after a loss to Springfield a week earlier.

So with that in mind, Matt Samyn orchestrated a 13-play, 72-yard drive in the fourth quarter to lead the Rabbits to the 14-6 Southern Minnesota Conference football win over the Greyhounds. The win improved Wabasso's record to 6-2 overall.

"[It was] Huge," Samyn said. "First of all, we wanted to be 7-1 or 6-2 on the season and we wanted to get the one or two seed in the section. We had to come after this team. It's a fantastic team, I'll give them credit. They gave us a run, but we came through."

Cathedral got on the board on its first drive on the fifth play from scrimmage. Jeff Schnobrich took a handoff from Adam Neubauer and found a hole in the offensive line. He then blew past the Wabasso secondary and raced 49 yards for the score, giving Cathedral a 6-0 lead. The PAT by Al Gleisner was blocked.

"It was a counter to the left," Schnobrich said. "I got out to the left, I think I broke a tackle and I saw green and I ran."

Wabasso responded on its next drive when Samyn found Dan Mathiowetz open on a 33-yard play that brought the ball to the Cathedral 7. Two plays later, Jase Guetter scored from four yards out to tie it at 6-6. The PAT missed and the first quarter ended in a tie.

Neither team was able to put together a threat in the second or third quarter and the Rabbits took over with the ball on their own 28 after Cathedral had a turnover on downs. The Rabbits kept the ball on the ground for the first 12 plays. In that stretch, Guetter carried the ball eight times for 29 yards.

After the Rabbits managed to get to the Cathedral 25, Samyn rolled to his left and found Mathiowetz, who cut over the middle.

Mathiowetz caught the pass and broke free of the Cathedral defender, scoring from 25 yards out to put the Rabbits up 12-6.

"We really went with the unbalanced offense and really just tried to pound them," Samyn said. "We got down to the 30- or 20-yard line and we were going to do a rollout run for me and at the last second have Mathiowetz come over the middle for another option. He had his hand up and I was there and I let it go."

After a penalty set the Rabbits back five yards, Samyn made good on the 2-point conversion as he followed his blockers and gave the Rabbits a 14-6 edge.

"They went to an unbalance power I, and we adjusted to it, but they were just beating us off the ball," Cathedral coach Denny Lux said.

Samyn admitted he was impressed by the Cathedral defense.

"We kind of knew what they were bringing at us, but we didn't expect them to come quite this hard," Samyn said. "We knew they were a good cover team, but they showed a lot of heart and they came real hard."

Cathedral came back and put together an impressive drive late in the fourth. Neubauer found Eric Schugel on a 30-yard pass down the sidelines. Schugel had one man to beat but was tripped up.

After Neubauer went down with an injury, back-up David Rysdal was picked off in the end zone by Guetter.

"We knew it was going to be tough, we just wanted to come in and do well on offense," Schnobrich said. "We didn't cut it on offense."

"Wabasso's got a good team," Lux said. "We obviously have a good team. Going in, we felt that we needed to score three times to beat these guys. We had a few opportunities in the second half. We got inside their half of the field, we just couldn't come up with that big play."

Cathedral (6-2) was led by Schnobrich's 94 yards on 15 carries. Neubauer had 30 yards passing and the Greyhounds carried the ball for 109 yards.

Defensively for the Greyhounds, Gleisner had 11 tackles and 1 1/2 sacks. He also recovered a fumble. Brandon Mohr and Dustin Hillesheim each had 10 tackles and Joey Lux had seven tackles and three pass breakdowns.

Wabasso had 152 yards rushing and 89 yards passing. Mathiowetz had 71 yards receiving and Guetter rushed for 97 for the Rabbits.

First quarter

Cathedral -- J. Schnobrich 49-yard run, PAT failed 6-0

Wabasso -- J. Guetter 4-yard run, PAT failed 6-6

Second quarter

No scoring

Third quarter

No scoring

Fourth quarter

Wabasso -- Samyn to Mathiowetz, 25-yard pass, 2-pt conversion run in by Samyn 6-14