NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux said that while running back Levi Jakes had a great game in the win over St. James last Friday (177 yards and three touchdowns), that a large part of the credit goes to the Greyhounds’ offensive line.

“From tight end to tight end those guys did a super job with the trapping game for Levi,” Lux said. “He was able to break off some long runs without getting touched and that is a tribute to the offensive line.”

Lux said that the Greyhounds only ran their Michigan T offense in the game due to injuries.

“We had a few guys out at times,” Lux said. “With our spread [offense] we want to make sure that we have our first-liners in there just because of the timing of the throwing. With Jakes up the middle and with Kyle [Seidl] and Jevan [Wilfahrt] going off-tackle on the edges — and Sam [Knowles, Cathedral quarterback] had a couple of runs around the far edge, it kept St. James off-balance on defense.”

Lux said that his team had some long drives in the game.

“We started deep in our own end and get to their 40 [yard line] and then break off a long run. At halftime [with Cathedral ahead 27-22] the momentum seemed to be going to St. James a little but we just outplayed them in the second half [for a 48-30 win].”

Lux said that their defensive line had a good rush all game.

“They stopped St. James power running game, I felt that [Jevan] Wilfahrt and [Sam] Blomberg on the deep throws.”

Lux said that his linebackers needed some experience to get better.

“That is why this game, coach [Jesse] Nosbush put Sam Knowles at middle linebacker because then the outside guys can just play their spot on the field.”

He said keeping Knowles at middle linebacker the rest of the year will depend on the kind of offense his team faces.

MENTAL MISTAKES HURT EAGLES: New Ulm High School head football coach Eric Kauffmann said that his team is continuing to make too many mental mistakes.

“I do not think that Marshall is 45 points better than us,” he said. “But they capitalized on a lot of our mental mistakes. Physically we are OK, it is just we have young guys in spots who are not very football-knowledge. We have good athletes.

“The mistakes we are making are in coverage schemes and understanding football at times. When you have great super athletes you can overcome that. Right now we are pressed a little bit — they know they can do some things but we are just not good enough right now to make some of the mistakes we make and overcome them. We have to work on our mental game and get our kids to feel more positive. When they make a mistake it affects them for too long of a period of time. When we can get that we will be a better football team.

“Sometimes a team is in a spread coverage and one player has not moved out enough and one of our other players does not understand that, maybe I should maybe go over and help him but I am more focused on doing what the coach told me. They need to adapt to it on the field.”

BUBOLTZ CONCERNED ABOUT BOTH SIDES OF THE BALL: Minnesota Valley Lutheran head football coach Jim Buboltz said that he is concerned about his team’s performance on both sides of the ball after a 34-16 road loss to Martin County West.

“I thought that we had a great week of practice and a nice plan for the game but we did not execute,” he said. “That is a little concerning — we need to find our identity and who we are.”

Buboltz said that right now it is more of a mental thing.

“We are trying to establish some things [but] we are not seeing that jell the way that we want,” Buboltz said. “We are still kind of looking. We thought that we had something after Week 2 and build on that. But we struggled a little bit — hats off to Martin County. They are now 3-0 and have things going in the right direction and we need to to that too.”

Buboltz said that right now he is more concerned about the play of the lines on both sides of the ball.

“It all starts with that group up front. We as a team are going to have to do some soul-searching over the weekend. We are a better football team than we have shown and the players know that.”

He said that the game came down to three plays that turned the game.

“We had a couple of turnovers that turned into touchdowns and we had one blown coverage for another touchdown. We work on them during the week in practice and in the game it does not happen.

“They got one touchdown on a pick-six and the second one came as a result of a strip fumble on a kickoff that later resulted on a touchdown for back-to-back scores for them,” Buboltz said. “We came back nice in the second half. We won the turnover battle in the game but we need consistency on the offensive side — that is what we are searching for right now. All in all, we just need to find our identity.”