Eagle skaters consistently dominating

NEW ULM - New Ulm High School hockey coach Tom Macho said that his team's 4-0 road win over Mound-West Tonka "was a very big win over a good team. They (Mound-West Tonka) was ranked 10th in the Class "A:" polls at the start of the week."

While the win moved the Eagles to 7-0 on the year, what made Macho smile all the more was the goaltending. "The thing that was most impressive was that we got another shutout," he said. "Plus, we allowed only 13 shuts on goal; that was a real plus considering that we have played (Fairmont and Becker-Big Lake) and have not had to play much defense at all."

The Eagles shelled Fairmont with 73 shots on goal in a 9-0 win and then peppered the Becker-Big Lake goalie with over 90 shots on goal in a 17-0 carjacking. "But we continued playing solid defense; the kids really worked hard."

That solid defense held Fairmont to only one shot on goal and in the win over Becker-Big Lake, New Ulm did not allow a shot on goal.

"The kids responded well to this team after those two easy wins," Macho said. "It was not difficult to get the kids to refocus against Mound-West Tonka because of this group of kids. What we have been working on all year is to stay at that same level each game, no matter who we are playing. They did it for the last three games; it is nothing that the coaching staff is doing or has done. A lot of that has to come from the kids themselves. The kids know that they have to be at that high level each game."

WURTZBERGER GOT SOME WORK: Macho said that goalie Gary Wurtzberger "was happy to get some work in" in his shutout of 13 Mound-Wes Tonka shots. "After the game, he said that they would only get one shot.I didn't have to worry about anything because the forwards and the defensemen got it out of the zone right away."

Macho felt that the seventh win of the season "was a team-oriented win. We had a number of penalties called - legitimate ones - and our kids went to the penalty box and then went back to work again. Our penalty killers, we used thee different sets and five defensemen and they did a nice job.":

EAGLES PLAY ST. THOMAS: New Ulm will play St. Thomas in the first round of the Blake Tournament that begins December 27 in Hopkins and will then play either the winner or loser (depending on what the Eagles do) of the St. Louis Park/ Fargo North game.

"I think that we feel good going into the tournament," Macho said. "We will scrimmage Minnehaha Academy this weekend which is a similar team to Mound-West Tonka which will be a good test for us. I think that if we do well there, the confidence of the kids going into that Blake Tournament will be high."

HAZUKA, GOBLIRSCH AGAIN LEAD HOUNDS: The inside-outside combination of Brandon Goblirsch and Tom Hazuka pushed the Cathedral Greyhounds over the .500 mark with that 64-55 win over Sleepy Eye Public Tuesday night.

The 6-foot 5 Goblirsch has scored 14, 20, 11 and 15 points in the first four Cathedral games while Hazuka, a junior, has tallied games of 27 and 19 before recording back-to-back 21 point games.

But also making his presence felt was senior guard Luke Schmitz to netted 14 points, including sinking three treys in the game.

That was important because the Indians, as every team will, will look to stop Hazuka outside.

"We knew that Tom was being keyed on but our other shooters outside (Schmitz, Jacob Mertz) are good enough that if they double-teamed Tom we would have an easy job of getting the ball inside and scoring,":commented Cathedral coach Bailey Blethen. " So I was not so concerned initially about the fact that they were denying the ball to Tom."

TURNOVERS PART OF GAME: When you play an up-tempo game like the Hounds play, turnovers are part of your world.

Tuesday night, the Hounds turned the ball over 23 times which Blethen says he is worried about but not overly concerned with. "We are going to get those (turnovers) with our style - we are an 84 foot team. We play the whole floor and there are a certain amount of turnovers that we have to learn to live with. But we had to many tonight - most of those (turnovers) had nothing to do with the full-court pressure or the (fast) break. They had to do with throwing bad passes in the zone. We need to keep working on those."

CHARGERS GIRLS SET RECORD IN WIN: MVL coach Dave Biedenbender said that his team's 25 point win over Cedar Mountain-Comfrey "was our best game all year. We only had six turnovers in the game which is a school record. The previous record was eight set back in the 1980-81 season<" he said. "We started of slow at the beginning (taking a 10-2 lead) not making shots. Once we got our defense taken care of, we started moving the ball and hitting our shots, we got on a roll."

Biedenbender said that the low turnovers by his team was do in large part because of solid guard play. "We had several players playing well at the guard spot; Leah Morgan and Becca Flatebo shared time at the point guard handled the ball well and made some nice passes along with Julie Dzwonkowski and Danielle Kramer also playing well inside and out. They played a good game against the 2-3 zone that we saw."

"We have improved a lot this season because I think that we are in the best condition that we have been; we have people back from injuries and also stamina-wise. That has allowed us to be smarter on the court."

MERSETH BACK HEALTHY: Jessica Merseth looks like she is recovered from her shoulder injury with her 19 points, nine rebounds, six steals and six assists. "She also had several offensive rebounds and played her strongest game of the year."

SECOND QUARTER LIFTS HOUNDS:Cathedral girl's basketball coach Mary Dengerud said that a strong second quarter in which the Hounds took command at 27-15 at halftime was the key to the 44-31 i win over Sleepy Eye Tuesday..

"Julie Seifert,our sophomore guard had 10 points in the first half and was a sparkplug in our offense," said Dengerud. "And Liesl (Genelin) has done a good job taking over at the point guard spot. Neither Julie or Liesl got a rest in the game; they were all over the floor defensively and offensively, Liesl runs the offense well and sets up the offense when things get a little shakey."

The win came despite playing without starters Kristen Beranek and Nikki Fischer who are hampered by ankle injuries but should be back after the Christmas break

"Kristen will start practicing tonight while Nikki will start running then also," said Dengerud.

The absence of both of them has given some players quality playing time. "This gives us more depth and if when we need that, they can come in."

Cathedral placed three players in double figures with Julie Seifert, Liesl Genelin and Katie Gieseke all hitting double-digits in the game. "Those girls really picked it up and ran the offense pretty well."

EAGLES SHOOT POOR: Coach Pat Burmeister said that poor shooting 16 per cent in the 45-point loss to St. James Tuesday night was one of the falls in the Eagles loss to the Saints.

"If you can't score points, you don't win," he said. "We were ahead 10-6 but stopped scoring on offense and lost all momentum on defense. We continued to shoot poor - some of it was a lack of understanding when they switched up defenses. And our lack of leadership showed."

Burmeister,whose team will host Mankato West Friday night, said that St. James "would play zone when they scored and we got good looks at the basket and from the three-point line."

New Ulm hit only one of 13 shots from beyond the arch in the game. "Overall, we hit only 10 of 59 shots. We did not match-up real well with them man-to-man; we had to play man-to-man when we got behind. That is one reason that the score got out of hand."

"We lacked intensity in the game; we got behind and the shots didn't fall," commented Burmeister. "Then we got frustrated and stopped hustling as well as we were."

Burmeister said that the players were "frustrated and embarrassed" after the big loss. "When you lose by so many points it is frustrating. St. James has lost to Fairmont and USC had beat Fairmont. Athletically, St. James is a better team than we are. But if started with our lack of execution on offense."

GANSKE OUT FOR THREE WEEKS: Charles Ganske will miss three weeks of basketball because of a knee injury that will require rest. "His knee has bothered him throughout football and playing on the hard court in basketball has not helped so he is out."

New Ulm will also be without a senior who quit because of academic problems and will probably quit. "We are dress one senior and are inexperienced," said Burmeister., "The kids try hard but got frustrated. We do not execute the basic fundamentals well."