New Ulm Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux said that the change that moved tight end Chris Knowles to quarterback gave the team “energy from the get-go” as the Greyhounds’ offense put up 50 points in a 50-26 win over Sleepy Eye Public.

It was the most points the Greyhounds had scored since they scored 43 points against Springfield last season.

“James Gillis did a super job for us at quarterback in our first four games (before a concussion sidelined him for the season) and we thought then that the best thing that we could do was moved Carter Haala, the B-squad quarterback up for a couple of games,” Lux said. “But Chris is a really good athlete on offense and defense, and I felt that he ran our offense pretty well. He ran the play-action pass — things were clicking well for us (Friday).”

Lux said that the switch at quarterback was more of a confidence thing.

“It is a lot to ask for Carter as a freshman — he really had not had of experience. And Jacob Berg, our third tight end, had been playing so well, “Lux said. “It was easier to put Jon Zinniel at the right tight end and use Jacob at the left tight end. The timing was right with playoffs coming up.”

Lux thought that Chris Knowles ran the offense well for his first start.

“I have been telling Chris that he has the best assistant coach in the house in his brother Sam. He (Sam) knows this offense inside and out. He watches film constantly and you could see that he had been working with Chris at home, Chris’ ballhandling and footwork were really dynamic for the first time out. We played well offensively and that was what we were looking for.

“All I really wanted us to do was come out and really run this offense.”

Lux said that running backs Jon Adema, Eric Furth, Luke Gieseke and Noah Wilmes all played well as did center Jacob Leshovsky.

“That is where it starts — the conditions were rough but he and Chris did a good job of getting the ball exchanged. Last night we hit the holes quicker.”

As far as the playoff go, Lux thinks that the strong teams that he has played from the west will prepare his team for when they go east for the playoff run.

CHARGERS PLAYED WELL: Despite a 24-14 loss to Wabasso, Minnesota Valley Lutheran head coach Jim Buboltz thought that his team played perhaps their best game of the season.

“We played very well,” Buboltz said. “Their 88-yard touchdown pass came on third-and-2 with two minutes left in the game — we had broken coverage.

“I am proud of the way that we played — they really embraced the conditions. We moved the ball pretty consistently all night and this was probably our best four-quarter game.”

He said that the Chargers had a couple of turnovers inside the Wabasso 20-yard line.

“Those could have given us a couple of more scores, but all in all a big step forward. The only thing missing now is a win.”

Buboltz said that quarterback Mason Cox continues to show good decision making.

“He hit Carlos Ramirez for a touchdown and found Colton (Collum) for a touchdown. We had five different receivers catch passes.”

He also said that defensively his linebackers of Mason Cox, Carlos Ramirez and Collum all played solid football.

“They did a nice job but that was because our front defensive line did a good job and got better. We are getting better at the right time so now we just need to start to see Ws and I think that is right around the corner.”

SAINTS SHUT DOWN EAGLES : New Ulm High School head football coach Eric Kauffmann said that St.Peter shut down the Eagles’ sweep play Friday night in a 22-14 loss to St. Peter.

“We did have some good sweeps and our power game was OK, but the big thing was that if we could have thrown the ball better it would be nice,” Kauffmann said. “But right now, we are not at that point yet. They were getting too much pressure up our middle, so we could not run our counter very well.

“St. Peter came out swinging and knocked us around a little bit. We have three wins and that will probably put us at a five seed in the section. We will probably play a Mankato East or a Jordan in the first round of the playoffs, I know that I would love to play Jordan again.”