Eagles down Worthington

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Last season, the Worthington Trojans ended New Ulm's football season with a 25-3 win in Section 2-4A playoff action.

After Saturday's rematch between the two schools, Worthington is going to find out how long a bus ride back to Worthington can be.

The Eagles fell behind 7-0 to Worthington before putting 21 unanswered points on the board to end the Trojans' season with a 21-7 win.

New Ulm, now 8-2, will travel to Mankato East Friday and tangle with the Cougars for the Section 2-4A crown.

"I think that we were hungrier that they were in that second half," said Eagle head coach Rick VanRoekel. "We made some adjustments (at halftime). This win is big for the football program. This is one of those hurdles that we have not been able to get over, but we have a good start."

Micah Neidecker was held to 52 yards on 18 carries by the Worthington defense, but the one of the keys to this huge New Ulm win was the passing of senior quarterback Matt Schmidt who hit on five of 12 passes for 130 yards on completions to three receivers.

Tight end Rob Geistfeld latched onto three Schmidt aerials for 82 yards, Danny Kitzberger, subbing for the injured Brandon Rolloff, caught one for 15 yards and Scott Krzmarzick was the recipent of one big pass, a 43-yard scoring strike that gave New Ulm a lead that it would never lose.

And the reason for that was the play of the Eagle defense.

The "Purple Reign" wreaked havoc all game with the Trojans, especially in the second half. The Eagle defense allowed Worthington only 25 yards offense for 23 minutes, yielding 34 yards in the last minute when New Ulm had the game in hand.

In fact, the Trojans would enter New Ulm territory only twice in the second half, penetrating to the 46-yard line on their first offensive possession of the fourth quarter and then reaching the 35-yard line with less than a minute left in the game. But that possession ended when Neidecker picked off a Kellen Trapenhagen pass with 20 seconds left in the game.

After a scoreless first quarter, the two teams found the end zone.

The Trojans would use a 69-yard, nine-play drive to take a 7-0 lead. A 12-yard pass from TTrapenhagen to Dan Klumper moved the ball into Eagle territory. From there, Anthony Watson who would total 61 yards on 13 carries in the game, covered 28 yards down to the New Ulm 22-yard line.

A procedure penalty on the next play moved Worthington back five yards, but three plays later on a 4th-and-1 from the 6-yard line, Trapenhagen faked to Watson and broke to his left for a scoring run with 6:22 left in the first half.

But the Eagles, who have seldom trailed in the last six games, marched right back, completing a 75-yard, 12-play drive. Pass completions to Geistfeld for 38 yards and 15 yards to Kitzberger kept the drive alive.

The series ended when Neidecker broke through the middle of the Trojan defensive line from four yards out for the score with 2:29 left in the first half. Charles Ganske's extra point kick sailed wide, but New Ulm had cut the lead and got momentum on its side at halftime.

A punt by Ganske that was grounded by Krzmarzick on the Trojan 1-yard line with 7:50 left in the third quarter paid dividends for New Ulm six minutes later as the Trojans could not free themselves from poor field position.

Worthington started drives on their own one and four in two straight series, with the later resulting in a score.

New Ulm took over on the Trojan 43-yard line when they pulled out their biggest play so far this season.

"We had set that play up all week in practice -- coach (Ron) Bunkers thought that it was a good time to use it," commented VanRoekel. "It was an excellent call on his part because the safeties were coming up."

The Trojan safeties were, and it resulted in a 43-yard TD pass from Schmidt to a wide open Krzmarzick for the score with 1:45 left in the third quarter.

"We knew that they were going to see the scissors on the tape from last game when Brandon (Rolloff) broke one for a touchdown," said Schmidt. "We ran that play once and they bit on it pretty hard, so we did the fake. We have been working on it in practice and Krz just went deep and was able to get the ball."

That score seemed to deflat the Trojans' offense and fire up the Eagle defense even more.

After Worthington's first offensive series of the fourth quarter, the Eagles recorded three quarterback sacks (Nate Braun, Geistfeld and Andy Howk) for losses totaling 29 yards.

The last sack came on a fourth down for Worthington from their own 13-yard line, with Howk and Geistfeld sandwiching Trapenhagen for a 10-yard loss.

One play after the change of possession, Neidecker put the final nail in the Trojan season with a 3-yard run with only 63 seconds left in the game.

WORTHINGTON 0 7 0 0 -- 7

NEW ULM 0 6 8 7 -- 21

FIRST QUARTER

No scoring.

SECOND QUARTER

W-Trapenhagen 6 run (Cham kick)

NU-Neidecker 4 run (kick failed)

THIRD QUARTER

NU-Krzmarzick 43 pass from Schmidt (Geistfeld pass from Schmidt)

FOURTH QUARTER

NU-Neidecker 3 run (Ganske kick)