×

Local Week 4 prep football preview: Cathedral takes on unbeaten MCC, MVL and New Ulm look for 1st wins

NEW ULM — The fourth week of the high school football season on the local scene has just the New Ulm Eagles home when they host the unbeaten Marshall Tigers in a South Central District, Red Subdistrict game at the New Ulm High School field.

New Ulm Cathedral and Minnesota Valley Lutheran are both on the road Friday, with the Greyhounds of Cathedral heading to Slayton to take on the unbeaten Rebels of Murray County Central in a Southwest District, East Subdistrict contest.

The Chargers of MVL head east to Adams to meet Southland in a Mid-Southeast District game.

MVL and New Ulm have 7 p.m. kickoffs, while Cathedral kicks off at 7:30 p.m.

NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (1-2) AT MURRAY COUNTY CENTRAL (3-0) SLAYTON

New Ulm Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux said that the Rebels are a very athletic team that does a lot of things on offense. “They highlight a very good tailback who has good size and speed and their quarterback has a strong arm,” Lux said. “He was injured last year when we played them so this will be the first time we see him. From what I have seen on film, he has a strong arm.”

The Rebels are coming off a 36-22 win last week over Sleepy Eye.

“We know that we are going to have to be solid all the way through on offense and defense,” Lux said. “They look like they may run more than pass but they are confident in their quarterback.”

Murray County will be bigger than Cathedral.

“We know week in and week out that we do not have a lot of size,” Lux said. “But the thing that we have going for us is we have good speed and our players are playing with a lot of heart and play hard and that is what gives you good things later on.”

Lux said coming off of a 45-30 win over Lac qui Parle Valley last week is big.

“Everything that we believe in as far as offense and defense came together last week. This was the confidence builder that every team was looking for.”

MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (O-3) AT SOUTHLAND (1-2) ADAMS

Southland is coming off their first win of the season last week as they defeated Kingsland 47-13.

“They like to try and run the ball first and then get to the play-action pass,” Chargers coach Jim Buboltz said. “We are going to have to stop the run first. We did get better at that as the game went on last week (a 31-30 loss to St Clair/Mankato Loyola), so we are looking to continue that improvement.”

The Rebels will show the double wing offense and also show the spread offense also.

Buboltz said he is interested to see how they defend the MVL spread offense.

“I am suspecting that we will see different defensive fronts and that will be the big thing we will look at right away,” he said.

The Chargers are coming off a solid second half last week that saw the MVL passing game come alive.

“We have a lot more players that we can spread the ball around too,” Buboltz said. “Jake (Kettner, Chargers wide receiver) had a marvelous game and Matt (Munsen, MVL quarterback) threw it well. But we still have more to see from Colton Collum, Mason Cox and Jace Marotz yet. We need to get everyone involved in the game, keep them all involved and keep all of them dangerous. I am sure we will see a lot of different coverages now on Jake. But that is going to leave a lot of different opportunities for other guys.”

MARSHALL (3-0) AT NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (0-3) NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL

All that you need to know about unbeaten Marshall is this.

The Tigers have outscored their opponents 153-23 in three games.

“They are good offensively and defensively,” New Um coach Corey Kneeshaw said. “They did lose two DI football players but they just reload and they are back at it again this season.”

The Tigers are the top scoring team in Class 4A and also the top defensive team in 4A.

“They are very talented on both sides of the ball,” he said. “Their offensive line is not huge, but they are very good. They are a well-coached team on both sides of the ball.”

Kneeshaw said that his team did not watch any game films of Marshall but rather watched films of themselves to see what they needed to improve on.

“We have enough to worry about with corrections that we need to make,” he said. “We do see what we need to correct and we do work on that. Right now we are banged up with the guys who are eligible right now. We are dealing with two or three guys on our offensive line who are out of position right now. It is what we are left with.”

Right now, the Eagles will have nine players going both ways.

“We dress 31 players for the varsity and 12 of them are freshmen,” Kneeshaw said.

He added that he would like to see his team offensively go more than three downs and have to punt.

“We want to put a drive together and control the clock,” he said. ” But we need to get our offensive line going some how. We need to run the ball to set up our passing game.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today