New Ulm Public advances to semifinal

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM - In tournament play, heroes are often made.

Tuesday night, there were many heroes for the New Ulm High School.

The Eagles overcame a 24-20 Willmar third quarter lead with two fourth quarter scores to come away with a 34-31 win over the Cardinals in Section 2-4A football playoffs.

New Ulm, now 6-3, will travel to Worthington Saturday for a 2 p.m. semifinal game.

"We had a lot of people who stepped up big tonight," said Eagle coach Rick Van Roekel who will take his Eagles to meet Worthington for the third straight year in the playoffs. "I thought that we threw the ball well tonight; we had some big plays by a lot of people."

The first of those big plays came after Willmar (1-8) took a 6-0 lead with just over four minutes left in the first quarter on a 20-yard run by Andrew DeBoer.

On the ensuing kickoff, Eric Austvold handed the ball off to Matt Furth and Furth did the rest, bolting 77 yards to the end zone and with Dan Kitzberger's extra point kick the Eagles had a 7-6 lead.

"That is the first kickoff return (for a touchdown) for us in a long time," said Van Roekel. "He (Furth) really got us going."

But the Cardinals, seeded sixth in 2-4A, regained the lead using an eight play, 69 yard drive and ending on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Dave Lutz to Darren Sobrack for a 12-7 lead with :38 left in the opening quarter.

But once again, the Eagles made a big play.

Taking over near midfield, New Ulm would need only seven plays to move ahead 14-12, Furth's 24-yard run moved the ball to the 30-yard line, One play later, it was Furth again who broke off an 18-yard run to set up a one-yard TD run by quarterback Charles Ganske.

The second of two Eagle first half turnovers would lead to their third score. Matt Wetterling;s recovery of a Ganske fumble led to the first of three touchdown runs by workhorse Tyler Gehrking, this one from three yards out for an 18-12 Cardinal lead.

But again it would be Furth who had a hand - or rather an arm - in another Eagles' big play.

Facing a second down from the Cardinal 36-yard line. Ganske handed off to Furth going to his right. Furth pulled up and connected with wide receiver Brandon Rolloff who broke two tackles and raced into the end zone for a 20-18 lead with only 35 seconds before halftime.

"We had worked on that play in practice; he had been throwing the ball short in practice but in the game he had all the adrenaline flowing and he threw it on the money and Slappy (Rolloff) made a nice grab and broke some tackles," Van Roekel said.

A successful fake punt by Willmar set up Gehrking for his second score of the night as the Cardinals completed a 16-play, seven minute drive for a 24-20 lead going into the final quarter.

Josh Jacobs' recovery (another big play) of a Willmar fumble set the stage for a 33-yard Ganske to Matt Suess (big play) touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter.

"We got him (Suess) in a seam fly; he never broke stride and that was a perfectly thrown ball," he said.

The Eagle defense held Willmar following the score to set the stage for the final big play of the game for New Ulm; one that sealed the win. On third down on their own 39-yard line, Kevin Neidecker took a handoff from Ganske, stumbled just beyond the line of scrimmage and raced 61-yards for the Eagles' final score at 6:31 of the quarter and a 34-24 lead."

"That was big for us,:"said VanRoekel. Also big was the receiving of Dan Kitzberger who latched onto five passes for 89 yards. "He has been our clutch receiver; we did not have Andy Bernard (pinched nerve) or Tom Bergstrom (broken foot); he has made some clutch catches all year."

WILLMAR 12-6-6-7=31

NEW ULM 7-13-0-14=34

FIRST QUARTER

WILLMAR: DeBoer,23 run. PAT; Failed.

NEW ULM: Furth, 77 kickoff return. PAT; Kitzberger, kick.

WILLMAR: Sobrack, 28 pass from Lutz. PAT: Failed.

SECOND QUARTER

NEW ULM: Ganske, nine run. PAT:Kitzberger, kick.

WILLMAR; Gehrking, three run. PAT: Failed.

NEW ULM: Rolloff, 36 pass from Furth. PAT: Failed.

THIRD QUARTER

WILLMAR: Gehrking, one run. PAT:Failed.

FOURTH QUARTER

NEW ULM: Suess, 33 pass from Ganske. PAT: Furth, run.

NEW ULM: Neidecker, 61 run. PAT: Failed.

WILLMAR: Gehrking, one run. PAT Baumgarten,kick.