Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm Cathedral running back Nathan Hauser tries to get by Juan Cortez (6) of Sleepy Eye during the fourth quarter Friday in Sleepy Eye. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

SLEEPY EYE — New Ulm Cathedral’s increased defensive pressure in the second half led to a 43-21 victory over Sleepy Eye on Friday in Southwest District, East Subdistrict football action.

The Greyhounds turned the ball over three times during the game, but they forced four turnovers, including a strip-fumble recovery by Nathan Hauser for a touchdown.

“Sleepy Eye — their guys up front were tough all night long,” Greyhounds coach Denny Lux said. “We had to work for everything we got off of our offense. They were quick and they were strong, but we just kept consistent. We stayed with the gameplan, we stayed with our offense and we were able to get some nice runs and just put some stuff together.”

The Greyhounds jumped out to a 22-7 lead in the second quarter after the Hauser fumble recovery for 6.

Sleepy Eye’s Jacob Berg then took a kick return back all the way to the Greyhounds 15-yard line with just 29.3 seconds to play in the half.

Sleepy Eye then completed a 20-yard touchdown pass on 4th-and-15 from Zachary Haala to Palmer Hittesdorf in the center of the end zone. That cut the deficit to 22-15 at the half after a 2-point conversion was successful.

The third quarter saw no points being put up, but it did feature two turnovers by each squad. There were two fumble recoveries by the Indians in the third quarter, while the Greyhounds had one fumble recovery and an interception by Hauser.

Cathedral turned things up in the fourth quarter after a 9-yard touchdown run by Colton Braulick led to a 29-15 lead. The touchdown came after two costly penalties by Sleepy Eye, including an unnecessary roughness penalty.

After an interception by the Greyhounds’ Andrew McClain was taken 19 yards to the Indians 7-yard line, Hauser punched in a 7-yard touchdown run on the first play of the new drive. An extra point gave Cathedral a 36-15 lead.

With 2:37 left in the fourth quarter, Brandon Berg had an 8-yard touchdown run to give Cathedral a 43-15 lead after an extra point.

Hauser had seven carries for 24 yards and a touchdown, while Braulick had 14 carries for 85 yards and two touchdowns. Also for the Greyhounds, David Berg had 14 carries for 110 yards and a score, while Brandon Berg had a touchdown on two carries for 12 yards.

Tyler Wilson led the Greyhounds in tackles with 10.

Sleepy Eye managed to get a breakaway run by Zach Haala for 83 yards to the Greyhounds 4-yard line and followed it up with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Haala to Landon Strong with 1:42 left to play.

“I told the kids, ‘football’s a game of up and downs,'” Indians coach Cory Haala said. “When things don’t go your way, you’ve got to do your best to recover. Obviously, give Cathedral credit — they made some adjustments at halftime and we kind of got stuck in our own end and we just couldn’t get past the 50.”

Stats were not provided by Sleepy Eye.

Sleepy Eye (0-2, 0-1) travels to play Murray County Central at 7 p.m. Friday, while Cathedral (2-0, 1-0) hosts Lac qui Parle Valley at 7 p.m Friday.