NEW ULM — The second week of the local high school football season here in New Ulm sees two teams — Minnesota Valley Lutheran and New Ulm High School — playing at home, while New Ulm Cathedral hits the road for its second game of the season.

Here is a preview of the games for all three teams.

NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (1-0) AT SLEEPY EYE PUBLIC (0-1) SLEEPY EYE 7 P.M.

Two familiar foes meet in this Southwest District, East Subdistrict game at 7 p.m.

“We have played Sleepy Eye a number of times — not only in the regular season but also in the playoffs,” Cathedral head coach Denny Lux said. “So we both know each other well. Their game last week against Minneota ( 58-7 loss) is by no means of any indication of what kind of team they are because they had a lot of things go wrong for them ­­– kind of crazy things that got them in bad spots on the field. We know they are a much better team than that and with Zach Haala at quarterback and with Landon Strong and Carter Tauer at running backs they have some seasoned players in the backfield along with some key linemen.”

When you play a team each season, Lux said that coaches drill their players into reading their keys and understanding the philosophies that you can pick up by playing someone a number of times.

“You really try and get your players to get that same kind of feel so that they can anticipate some of the things that are going to come along” he said. “They are a good looking football team. They have speed. They are going to match up well with us and it is going to be a good ballgame.”

Last week, the Greyhounds’ defense laid a shutout on Lakeview and Lux feels his team is still trying to get better on defense and offense.

“We are trying to get better on how we handle the ball — how we fake and carry the ball,” Lux said. “The same defensively in getting our reads. Your biggest chance for improvement is from week one to week two. You see yourself on film and we do scout our team as well as the other team. You want to know what kind of tendencies you are tipping off. Friday we need to come out and set the tempo and get the players prepared both physically and mentally.”

WORTHINGTON (0-1) AT NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (0-1) NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL FIELD 7 P.M.

Both the Trojans and the Eagles are coming off of first-game losses. New Ulm fell to Waseca 46-14 while Worthington lost to Jordan 51-21.

“This is a game of more evenly matched teams,” Eagles head coach Corey Kneeshaw said. “They will play a physical style and try and establish the line of scrimmage. They want to play smash-mouth football so we need focus on a couple of run plays that we have identified for them that they like to do. We need to shut them down. And we need to tackle a lot better — we have stressed that and continue to stress that each week. Those running plays that they like to do — we have stressed them to our team so much in practice this week that I want them to be sick of them.”

This week will also be the first week that local fans will see the new offense installed by Kneeshaw this year.

“The thought process for us going to it is that there are not many teams that we are going to be as big or as physical as,” he said. “This offense comes back from my days back in California and coaches back there did it when they had undersized lines. They did that to kind of spread the defensive line out and not only give their offensive line more time but also their quarterback more time. When we first went to it our kids were saying, ‘we are doing what?’ Now it is pretty normal. Normal splits on an offensive line are between one and one half to two feet from each lineman. Our offense has splits between four to four and a half feet from each other. So you will see bigger gaps in our line. If a team wants to blitz our gaps, our linemen have plays that are designed for that. Against Waseca, we did a good job of maintaining their roles. We did not give up one sack.”

But Kneeshaw knows that the key to this game is going to come down to tackling.

“We have to shut down their running game,” Kneeshaw said. “If we do not shut down their running game, it is going to be a long night for us.”

LESTER PRAIRIE HOLY TRINITY (1-0 ) AT MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (0-1 ) JOHNSON FIELD 7 P.M.

The last time these two teams met was in the 2012-13 season when Lester Prairie Holy Trinity came away with a 39-0 win.

“They beat St. Clair 25-0 in their first game and they have a returning quarterback,” MVL head coach Jim Buboltz said. “They are primarily a running team and their quarterback is a good athlete who can also throw. And they will show some different looks on defense, so the hope is that we can get some of our athletes in some space and that can help us.”

“We want to get our athletes on offense in space more — that is who we are.” he said. “We are trying to get our line bigger and stronger. We have six seniors and a sophomore on that line so they have to come together and if they can be more dominating, we can be in good shape.”

Buboltz said that he knows that he has to get his wide receivers more involved in the game.

“We have to — we have Jake Kettner out there with Colton Collum and Jace Marotz. They have to get the ball.”

Buboltz said that the biggest improvement he wants to see in his team from last game to this game is the run defense.

“Once we get settled on the defensive side, then we need to consistently move the ball,” he said. “We had some big plays on offense last week with five runs of 15 yards or more, but then we had six negative plays. We need to be more consistent.”

“This game is like week one again because you just never know what you are going to get” Buboltz said. “We have to take care of the ball and maintain our drives in this game.”