Football fever hits New Ulm

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Both the Greyhounds of New Ulm Cathedral and the New Ulm Eagles open state tournament play Friday with football games on the road.

The Greyhounds, who will be making their third state tournament appearance, will travel to Medford to meet the top-ranked and unbeaten Tigers in 1-A state tournament action while New Ulm High School, in its first state football appearance ever, meets the Farmington Tigers in Farmington in the opening round of AAAA action.

The winner of these games will play in the Metrodome next Thursday and Friday as state tournament play continues.

Both games are 7 p.m. starts.

NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (9-2) AT MEDFORD (11-0) 7 P.M.

Cathedral coach Denny Lux knows that one of the keys to winning Friday night will be stopping Medford's quarterback Brent Yule. "He just seems to come up with big plays time and again on third and fourth down," Lux said. "He is the kind of guy who likes to take the game into his hands -- he is more of a threat now of a runner (6-foot-1, 195) than a passer. He does throw the ball well, he has good receivers but we just feel like he wants to do it on the ground. When he sees a seam in the defense he is off and running."

Lux feels that facing similiar quarterbacks in the Tomahawk Conference like Dan Petersen of Sleepy Eye, Matt Samyn of Wabasso and Andy Moritz of Springfield. "That will help us -- we have said all along that the experience that we have had in our conference schedule has toughened us up and made us a team that is confident of ourselves. We do not panic.

"They have some strong athletes on defense especially at the noseguard. Their three linemen will penetrate a yard or so and then hustle down the line to the ball. We need to get into our blocks early and maintain our blocks."

Medford coach Morris McCabe said that his team "is a well-rounded team."

Led by Yule, a four-year starter at quarterback, Medford has what McCabe calls a three-headed monster on offense. "We have Chris Jirele at tailback (110 carries, 600 yards), Cory Stroup (143 carries, 715 yards), and Yule has 545 yards on 93 carries. Despite that yardage, we are not primarily a running team. We are multi-dimensional."

Passing-wise, Yule has completed 76 of 144 yards for 1,456 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Yule will look to Ryan Cornelius who has caught 27 passes for 553 yards.

"We are not big size-wise on defense," McCabe said. "But we are very fast. Our team speed is one of our strengths. Record-wise this is our best team. Two years ago we were 9-2 but we played nine-man during the season and then had to move up to 11 man for the playoffs where we lost to Goodhue 13-12 in the section finals."

McCabe said that his team has scored 337 points in 11 games while allowing only 68 points in that same span. "It is pretty dominating," he said. "We have given up one passing touchdown all season."

"This game will come down to special teams and which team comes in more relaxed and the most assured of themselves," Lux said. "Medford has an excellent football facility -- this football field and lockerroom are both brand new. This will give us a flavor of a state football playoff game. I know that our kids will respond to the situation."

NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (9-2) AT FARMINGTON (10-1) 7 P.M.

The champions of the South Central Conference -- the New Ulm Eagles -- meet the Missota Conference champions in the Tigers of Farmington.

Farmington's only loss of the season came to Richfield Holy Angels and they also have wins over Red Wing and Hutchinson this year.

"One of our strengths is that we have a variety of kids that can carry the football," Tiger coach Mark Froehling said. "I have three running backs that are good -- they have decent speed. Our offensive line does a decent job of making holes for our backs and our defensive line helps get the ball back to the offense. We have relied on our defense."

He said that his offense is more balanced than in the past.

Leading the Tigers offensively has been running back Michael Bengen who is 5-foot-10, 175 pounds.

"He has rushed for around 700 yards this season," Froehling said. "Mark Masso, our fullback, has rushed for around 600 yards and Kevin Kratz has 515 yards rushing."

Defensively, he said that New Ulm's offensive and defensive lines "are bigger than we are."

"We have been pretty consistent this year with only one loss -- we do not turn the ball over. And we cannnot do that against New Ulm. They are too big and powerful. It will be a tough game for us. As a team they are the biggest overall. We need to slow down their running game."

New Ulm coach Rick VanRoekel said that the Eagles must play their best game overall of the season.

"We cannot have any turnovers or penalties in this game," VanRoekel said. "If we have big penalties or turnovers it will kill us and we will have a hard time winning."

He said that when a team gets to this stage, all teams are good.

"We are underdogs again lke we were against Mankato East and Mankato West, but I think that we like that situation," VanRoekel said. "We have nothing to lose. We are having a fun time with the ride here to the state tournament. We are again the underdogs -- we want to keep playing, practicing and hopefully get to the dome.

"We are going to keep doing what we have done this year and (offensive co-ordinator) Ron Bunkers has done a great job with the offense and putting points on the board," Van Roekel said. "We don't care who we are playing. We beat two Big Nine schools and mentally that is a big part of the game. They don't care who they play. They just want to keep playing football."