Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm Cathedral’s Mark Schommer (7) and Andrew McClain bring down Caden Bjornjeld of Lac qui Parle Valley Friday at Johnson Field in New Ulm. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — In a game decided by a late field goal, it was early turnovers that proved to hurt New Ulm Cathedral most.

Lac qui Parle Valley’s Isaac Gerdes kicked a 29-yard field goal with 37 seconds left to give his team a 37-35 victory against New Ulm Cathedral in Southwest District, East Subdistrict football action to spoil Cathedral’s homecoming.

David Berg scored four touchdowns for Cathedral. He also kicked a PAT to give Cathedral a 35-34 lead with 3:51 left in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles took the ensuing kickoff back to Cathedral’s 34 and eventually kicked the game-winning field goal. Berg finished with 156 yards rushing on 17 carries.

It was an emotional game to say the least for the Greyhounds.

“It’s tough, but I’m glad the way the team fought back and pushed against them,” Berg said.

Berg scored on runs of 10, 49, 43 and 5 yards. Colton Braulick scored Cathedral’s other touchdown on an 18-yard run that tied the game at 34-34 late in the fourth quarter. Braulick had 14 carries for 154 yards and a touchdown.

The Greyhounds dug themselves a big hole to crawl out of early, giving up 20 straight points to start the game thanks to two turnovers. They only ran three plays from scrimmage in the first quarter and finally put together a drive in the second quarter after Berg scored his first touchdown to make it 20-6 with 7:03 left in the first half.

After LQPV’s next drive didn’t result in any points, Cathedral again scored, this time on a 49-yard run by Berg and it trailed 20-14 at halftime.

“With the holes, we trust each other,” Berg said. “I’ll hit the hole hard and I’ll trust that they’ll make the hole even if it doesn’t look like it’s open.”

LQPV recovered an onside kick to start the second half and it marched down the field to go up by two possessions at 28-14. Cathedral answered on Berg’s third touchdown and LQPV scored again late in the third quarter to make it 34-20.

Berg’s fourth touchdown and a 2-point conversion helped close the gap to 34-28 on Cathedral’s first drive of the fourth quarter. After a LQPV 3-and-out, the Greyhounds marched 86 yards on nine plays to eventually grab the one-point lead.

However, it just wasn’t meant to be for the Greyhounds. LQPV kicked the late field goal, then recovered a second onside kick to run out the remainder of the game.

“We dug a hole, we put the ball on the ground and we didn’t recover a couple of onside kicks, we didn’t cover the kickoff,” Cathedral coach Denny Lux said. “Lac qui Parle’s got a good team, but the people that were watching were thinking that we kept shooting ourselves in the foot here. Maybe it’s just a lesson learned.”

For Berg and the rest of the Greyhounds, it was a valuable lesson learned moving forward.

“The turnovers got the best of us, but we also learned that even if we’re down, we can battle back through it,” Berg said.

Defensively, Tyler Wilson and B.J. Mages had 10 tackles each for Cathedral.

Cathedral (2-1) hosts Murray County Central at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23.