Staf photo by Steve Muscatello Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Luke Thompson (1) gets past New Ulm Cathedral’s Jacob Berg (left) Friday at Johnson Field in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — Before Friday, the last time Minnesota Valley Lutheran and New Ulm Cathedral met on the football field was during the Section 2A playoffs in 2016 where MVL won 8-0.

On Friday night at Johnson Field in Southwest District, East Subdistrict football action, while the final score was also 8-0, it was Cathedral coming away with the win this time.

It was anything but pretty, but Greyhounds head coach Denny Lux was glad to get the win between the rival schools. He said that his defense was tough overall against MVL and played really well.

“Overall, coach [Jesse] Nosbush, our defensive coach, I thought he had a great gameplan,” Lux said. “Our d-backs felt comfortable with what they were going to see as far as routes coming at them and formations and those combination routes, and then we were playing without a safety. We were saying that we were going to defend the middle of the field with our two linebackers. Will Schabert, Tony Geiger, they did a very fine job. So defensively, I thought we played really well.”

Tony Geiger and Eric Furth carried the Greyhounds’ offense, rushing for 106 yards and 98 yards, respectively. The Cathedral defense got eight total tackles and a sack from Josh Kretsch and six total tackles and a sack from Noah Thompson.

The Greyhounds rushed for 238 total yards.

Late in the second quarter and with the Greyhounds at the MVL 21-yard line, Leyton Brau picked off a James Gillis at the MVL 4-yard line to keep the Greyhounds out of the end zone. Unfortunately for MVL, that pinned it deep in its own territory and the Greyhounds took advantage of it.

On the third play after the interception, the Greyhounds blitzed MVL quarterback Luke Thompson and forced him to throw the ball away while in his own end zone. The pass didn’t go far enough, however, and it led to a safety on an intentional grounding for a 2-0 Cathedral lead.

No more points were put up until 8:06 left in the game when Gillis threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Jon Zinniel in the corner of the end zone for an 8-0 Cathedral lead. The 2-point conversion after failed.

Mason Cox played under center during the second half for MVL and ended up with 43 rushing yards. Jace Marotz had 22 yards receiving for the Chargers also.

Colton Collum led the MVL defense with 11 total tackles, while Marotz had eight total tackles and Spencer Burden added a sack.

While the Chargers started to get more offense going in the second half, too many mistakes and penalties led to their offense being held out of the end zone for the second week in a row.

“I think we make bad mistakes at bad times … that’s the biggest thing,” MVL head coach Jim Buboltz said. “The focus on the play that we really need, we’re moving the ball very, very well, and then it’s a penalty or a pass completed, penalty, 13-yard gain, 15-yard penalty. I think that’s the biggest thing. Let’s put it this way, our line played better in the second half and if our line can play better, then the rest of our offense can get better, too.”

The Greyhounds (1-2, 1-1) host Wabasso at 7 p.m. Friday, while the Chargers (0-3, 0-2) host Murray County Central at 7 p.m. Saturday.