Hounds survive scare

By PAUL DUNLAP

Journal Sports Editor

NEW ULM -- Momentum is a funny thing.

After being manhandled for much of the first half, the second-seeded New Ulm Cathedral football team scored touchdowns on four straight second-half possessions to overcome No. 7 Cedar Mountain/Comfrey 34-25 in Section 2-1A playoff action at Johnson Field Tuesday afternoon.

"Cedar Mountain came in with a good gameplan, both offensively and defensively," Greyhound coach Denny Lux said. "They took advantage of a lot of things in the first half ... you know, we've been coming off so many high games lately that you wonder when we might come out flat. That happened in the first half."

Not right away, though, as Cathedral took the opening kickoff and marched 73 yards in six plays for the score. Quarterback Joey Schugel connected on a 33-yard strike to Hans Biebl in that drive, which culminated in a Schugel 13-yard run to give the Hounds a 6-0 lead with 9:37 left in the first quarter.

"We took that opening drive and went down and score fairly easily," Lux said. "Then we hit a flat spot, and it was a flat spot on both sides of the ball."

The Greyhounds couldn't mount another offensive threat for the remainder of the first half and the Cougars, most notably running back Kyle Marks, took advantage. Marks gave CM/C the lead with a 1-yard run and an extra-point kick late in the first quarter, and quarterback Brook Christensen extended that lead as he went left on the option for 49 yards and the score. Marks, who finished the first half with 18 carries for 146 yards, would score two more times -- on runs of 41 and 4 yards -- and the Cougars went into the locker room with a commanding 25-6 lead at the break.

"(CM/C) came out with some different formations that we had trouble with," defensive coach Larry Wellmann said. "(Defensive) ends and linebackers covering the option, and that opened some things up for them."

Whatever was said by the coaching staff worked after half. The Greyhounds got things going on their first drive of the third quarter -- an 8-play, 59-yard march that ended on a 9-yard scoring pass from Schugel to Billy Schreiber -- and got within 25-22 on an option pass from wideout Tony Moldan to Brandon Reinarts that went for 42 yards and the score with 2:34 left in the third.

"It says something about the leadership on this team," Lux said. "We took the ball in the second half and came out like gangbusters."

While a 10-play, 67-yard drive culminating in a Reinarts 7-yard scoring run put Cathedral back out on top, the defense began to shut down the Cougars. Jacob Mertz and Reinarts each came up with interceptions, and the defense as a whole stopped CM/C twice on downs in the fourth quarter.

"We took care of (the defense) at halftime," Wellmann said. "We switched up some assignments, and our kids responded."

Schugel would end the scoring with 7:08 left in the game as he went 39 yards on a sweep left for the touchdown on the first play following Reinarts' interception.

"This is a team that just wants to keep on playing," Lux said. "We just found a way. We had some big plays in that second half obviously, but today I think it came down to our defense. We shut (CM/C) down in the second half."

Cathedral, now 8-1 on the season, will face either Sleepy Eye or Faribault Bethlehem Academy at noon Saturday at Johnson Field in semifinal action.

CM/C 7 18 0 0 -- 25

CHS 6 0 16 12 -- 34

FIRST QUARTER

CHS-Schugel 13 run (pass failed) 9:37

CMC-Marks 1 run (Marks kick) :35

SECOND QUARTER

CMC-Christensen 49 run (kick failed) 9:35

CMC-Marks 41 run (pass failed) 8:03

CMC-Marks 4 run (run failed) :31

THIRD QUARTER

CHS-Schreiber 9 pass from Schugel (Reinarts pass from Schugel) 6:37

CHS-Reinarts 42 pass from Moldan (Schugel run) 2:34

FOURTH QUARTER

CHS-Reinarts 7 run (pass failed) 8:44

CHS-Schugel 39 run (pass failed) 7:08