Cathedral rolls past CM/C
By Michael Gassett — Journal Sports WriterArticle Photos
NEW ULM - It turns out the best offense for New Ulm Cathedral is good special teams.
Greg Genelin returned two punts for touchdowns in the second quarter and the Greyhounds cruised from there as they beat Cedar Mountain/Comfrey 42-12 in the Section 2A semifinals Saturday night at Johnson Field.
"We found different ways to score tonight," Cathedral coach Denny Lux said. "I give our guys a lot of credit because Cedar Mountain is a very good football team and a good defensive team and our guys really came through this evening."
CM/C scored first in the opening quarter when Marcus Heiling scored on a 48-yard run up the middle for the score.
"We knew with their offense that they have a scoring capability - they've got that for sure," Lux said. "Our guys didn't get down on it, we bounced right back and got them."
And bounce back they did.
The Greyhounds forced the Cougars to punt on their next possession and Genelin took the punt 40-yards in for their first score.
CM/C was forced to punt on its next possession and again Genelin found a seam and raced in for a score, this time from 63-yards out.
Kevin Larson connected with Brandon Berg for the 2-point conversion and Cathedral had a 14-6 lead.
Dalton Kleinschmidt got the Cougars back in to the game on the next possession as CM/C marched 65 yards on seven plays. The biggest came at 4th-and-one from the Cathedral 45 as Kleinschmidt hit Dale McMullen for a 44-yard gain down to the 1-yard line.
Kleinschmidt kept it himself on the next play for the touchdown. The conversion fell incomplete and Cathedral hung to a slim 14-12 lead.
It wasn't slim for long.
Cathedral scored on its next two possessions - a 3-yard touchdown run by Genelin and a 15-yard scoring run by Michael Glawe - to give the Greyhounds a 28-12 lead at the half.
Cathedral didn't waste anytime adding to its total as Berg intercepted Kleinschmidt on the first play of the third quarter and ran it in for a 30-yard touchdown. That put the Greyhounds up 35-12.
Cathedral finished the scoring on the first possession of the fourth quarter when Berg caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Larson to make the final score 42-12.
"All that momentum just kind of built our team up and just kind of took a little bit out of them," Lux said. "Cedar Mountain sure didn't quit, they kept coming and coming all the way through the football game."
Cathedral was led by Glawe with 15 carries for 120 yards and a touchdown. Genelin had 13 carries for 53 yards. Berg, Glawe and Ben Wolf had interceptions. Colin Wendinger had two interceptions.
Kyle Fischer had nine tackles and Berg had five tackles.
Cathedral (9-0) advances to face Southern Minnesota Conference rival Springfield in the section finale Friday at 7 p.m. at Johnson Field.
It will be a rematch of the first game of the season which Cathedral won 21-13.
"Since the first game a lot of people have been talking about us meeting again," Lux said. "I do believe we are the two best teams in the conference and in the section. Now we get to play again."




