By Jim Bastian

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM – On Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s first two possessions against New Ulm Cathedral on Friday night, junior running back Josiah Glowicki fumbled, turning the ball over after successful drives.

But Glowicki made up for the turnovers – none of which resulted in Cathedral points – by rushing for 157 yards and a touchdown in MVL’s 29-16 win against Cathedral.

And the deciding factor turned out to be the running game and the line play from both teams.

In the first half, both the Chargers and the Greyhounds each ran 31 offensive plays.

But in the second half, the Chargers doubled the offensive plays of the Greyhounds 34-17.

After Cathedral had taken a 16-15 lead on a 59-yard screen pass for a touchdown from Jacob Manderfeld to Brendan O’Brien on a four-play drive to start the third quarter, MVL basically controlled the line of scrimmage the rest of the way with Glowicki running the ball.

In the second half, the junior carried the ball 16 times including eight carries in the fourth quarter when he spearheaded a 77-yard, 12-play drive. His ability to run the ball set up the passing game for quarterback A.J. Buboltz, who hit Jake Kettner for a 16-yard gain on a third-and-20. On fourth down from the Cathedral 20-yard line, Buboltz executed a play-action pass that froze the Greyhounds’ secondary and found Matt Munsen all alone for the touchdown.

“A.J. showed some good leadership at quarterback and made some plays,” MVL coach Jim Buboltz said. “Our receivers did a nice job tonight. Matt Munsen had a couple catches and he is so dangerous of a player, Jake Kettner and Jacob Kiecker came up with some nice catches. And Colton Collum, for a freshman to play as many plays as he played, I was proud of my team tonight. We were down 16-15 and we were teetering on what direction our season was going to go.”

CHARGERS TOUGH ON LINE: New Um Cathedral football coach Denny Lux credited MVL after the game.

“They were tough in the trenches, offensively and defensively on the line,” Lux said. “That is where I felt they played really well. Plus A.J. [Buboltz] had a great game. He threw the ball had and hit it on a rope. He made it tough for our defensive backs.”

Lux said that the Chargers stopped the Greyhounds’ running game.

“We saw the same thing last year when we played them,” Lux said. “Their linebackers just read their keys. That took us out of our game a little bit – we were able to throw and complete a few passes but it made it tough when we could not set it up with the run first.

“Give MVL credit – they had a fine game plan both offensively and defensively.”

POSITIVE COACHING ALLIANCE CLINIC HELD IN NEW ULM: The “Positive Coaching Alliance” will hold a clinic at the New Ulm Middle School (formerly New Ulm Senior High School) at 7 p.m. this Thursday.

“Last year hockey, basketball, soccer, baseball and softball were all invited to a meeting with a representative of someone from the PCA [Positive Coaching Alliance],” Pete Guggisberg said.

The PCA was started in 1998. It is a national organization that is trying to improve relationships between parents, kids and coaches.

Guggisberg said that having this here in New Ulm is something that they want to see happen.

There will also be another session on Thursday Oct. 27 at the middle school at the same time.