Greyhounds run wild in win against Springfield
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SPRINGFIELD -- New Ulm Cathedral knew exactly what it wanted to do against Springfield's potent offense on Wednesday. And the Greyhounds executed the game plan to perfection.
The Cathedral defense was once again tough, limiting the Tigers' big-play abilities in a 43-15 win at Sticker Field.
The win means the Greyhounds will likely get the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Section 3A playoffs and the Tigers will probably draw the No. 3 seed in the playoffs, depending on how the seedings go on Thursday morning.
Although it was a short week of practice for both teams, the Greyhounds saw what Springfield quarterback Decker Scheffler and Springfield wide receiver Isaac Fink did last week against Sleepy Eye and they made sure history wasn't going to repeat itself on Wednesday.
"During practice, we mostly stick with what coach wants us to do," Cathedral's Jacob Geiger said about the team's defensive preparation. "We try to perfect it to our best possibility, whoever has the ball when we're running defense with scout offense, we try to take the ball out no matter how far away he is, we're just making sure we get to the ball and get the guy tackled."
Once again, the Cathedral running game was playing well. Zach Helget had 17 carries for 132 yards and three touchdowns (29, 7, and 1-yard runs) and Elliot Schoo had 19 carries for 127 yards. Quarterback Sam Knowles also got in the mix, rushing for 17 yards on three carries, including a 14-yard touchdown run. He also threw a touchdown pass to Alex Hillesheim as the Greyhounds improved to 5-3 overall.
The biggest thing for the Greyhounds is that they controlled the line of scrimmage.
"One of the things coming into this game, we didn't know what kind of defense they were playing through film, we've seen a lot of defensive fronts so it's just really being patient in practice and letting coach explain how to block," offensive lineman Tony Geiger said.
The Greyhounds scored twice in the first quarter, with Helget scoring from 29 yards out and they added to the lead later in the first quarter when Knowles scored. Helget scored his second TD of the game in the second quarter to give Cathedral a 22-0 lead.
The Greyhounds eventually led 36-0 after Helget scored his third rushing touchdown and Knowles threw a touchdown pass to Hillesheim. Fink got the Tigers on the board with a touchdown reception in the fourth quarter.
Josh Seidl scored the final Cathedral touchdown from 38 yards out in the fourth quarter and Kadin Johnson ran one in from 64 yards out for the Tigers.
Defensively for the Greyhounds, Joey Griebel had 13 tackles and Jacob Geiger had 10 tackles. Jaden Hotovec and Hillesheim each had an interception.
Scheffler passed for 93 yards, one touchdown and had two interceptions. He also had 52 yards rushing. Mason Rummel had 16 carries for 101 yards rushing and Fink had three catches for 64 yards and a touchdown. Nolan Hovland had 21 yards receiving and Ivan Hovland had nine tackles, while Rummel had five tackles.
The Tigers know they have to forget about the loss and regroup.
"We talked about we need to address what happened today so it doesn't happen again," Fink said. "It's a good time for this to happen, but it's a wakeup call for us and we just need to learn from it and move on and use that in the future. Now, there's no more second chances after this game."