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Week 2 prep football preview: New Ulm teams looking to capture first wins of season

NEW ULM — Week 2, three teams, one win.

That is the scenario for Week 2 of the local high school football season as all three local football teams in New UIm look to capture their first win of the season.

Both the Chargers of Minnesota Valley Lutheran and the New Ulm Eagles will have to earn their first wins on the road with games at Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity and Worthington, respectively, while New Ulm Cathedral hopes to get its first win at home against Sleepy Eye Public.

All games are 7 p.m. kickoffs.

MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (0-1) AT LESTER PRAIRIE/HOLY TRINITY (0-1) LESTER PRAIRIE

Last week, the Chargers fell 26-0 to Mayer Lutheran, while the Bulldogs lost 39-17 to St. Clalr/Loyola.

“They are a younger team like we are and they have some questions on the line like we do,” Chargers coach Jim Buboltz said. “They will feature a power running game up the middle with a big fullback that tries to get them 3-5 yards at a crack. They use him in the power run game, a lead blocker or in the screen game. Their quarterback can scramble and is pretty dangerous. They have some weapons offensively. And on defense they will give us a different look on every play.”

Buboltz said that the MVL linemen will match up well with the Bulldogs so the Chargers linebackers wil be able to make plays. “They need to be sound in their tackling.”

Despite last week’s opening-game loss, Buboltz said that he saw some bright spots from his team.

“We made adjustments early — we gave up a touchdown late in the game — but I felt that our defense came around and shut things down,” he said. “And we were able to move the ball offensively. We do need to clean things up because we had some costly penalties at key times. When we are third-and-1, we do not to want to turn that into a third-and-6.”

Buboltz thought that the return to the Chargers’ former offense worked out well last week.

“We did some nice things on the mid-line and we only had one turnover in the game. Last year we averaged over three turnovers a game,” he added.

He said that he would like to feature some of his players on offense this week. “We are going to tighten things up offensively and get ourselves more focused on staying penalty-free. We need to get a better start this week than we did last week.”

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

Last week, the Indians lost to perennial power Minneota 23-8, while Cathedral dropped a 34-33 overtime loss to Lakeview.

New Ulm Cathedral coach Denny Lux said that when watching the film of the Indians’ game against Minneota, he saw a Sleepy Eye team that played with a lot of confidence.

“You could see that from their sophomore quarterback (Kegan Heiderscheidt) all the way to their seniors,” Lux said. “This is a team that has been coming on for the last two years. They have a lot of nice athletes and this will be a very good football game.”

Lux said that the Indians run the Wing-T offense that the Greyhounds formerly ran.

“And Heiderscheidt gets rid of the ball quick and he looked confident against Minneota. They have good size and speed. Their 11 starters on offense and defense are solid.”

Lux said that his team usually adjusts to defenses quickly but did not in the second half to Lakeview.

“We did not adjust our blocking very well but we were young out there. All of a sudden we had a sophomore at guard and a younger player at tackle.”

That was because of injuries to linemen Joey Griebel and Tony Geiger, who will both be back this week.

This is a big game for both teams as they try and get that first win of the season.

“The first game was a nonsection game, but we all know what these section games mean for us,” he said.

“We need to play solid defense, not turn over the ball and we all have to understand our responsibilities. That is the big part.”

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

Last week, both teams saw losses in their first games as New Ulm fell 62-0 to Waseca, while the Trojans dropped a 42-7 game to Jordan.

New Ulm coach Corey Kneeshaw said that Worthington is big and has some athletic ability.

“They are like us, they struggled in their first game,” he said. “We both faced superior teams but I think this is a real good matchup for both teams. We are both 0-1 and someone is going to get to 1-1.”

Kneeshaw said that Worthington does some things defensively that the Eagles can exploit.

“And they are probably going to try and run the ball more than they did last week because they saw we had a hard time stopping the run.”

He said that Worthington has some talented sophomores that they are playing and they will be a different team than the one New Ulm beat 44-16 last year.

Kneeshaw said that his team can play a lot better than they did last week, especially on the line.

“But it is not all on the line,” he said. “Nolan (Drill, Eagles quarterback) held onto the ball a little bit too long and we identified some things. He needs to get the ball out of his hands quicker.”

He also thinks that this week his team is matched up with a team that is on the Eagles’ skill level.

“But we are going to be undersized with our offensive line and their defensive line, “ Kneeshaw said. “We need to have our pad level lower on the line.”

Kneeshaw said that being on the road, getting the first touchdown of the game is huge for his team.

“We did not score last week against Waseca and if we can get that first score, it is a morale booster. But it will be big for both teams. We need to be able to take care of the ball and give Nolan some time to throw the ball.”

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