In the New Ulm Eagles first football game this season, the Eagles fell 40-0 to Tri-City United in a game where New Ulm had just one first down.

Tuesday night the same two teams met again in a Section 3AAA playoff game and there was no similarity with the first meeting.

New Ulm was tied 14-14 at half-time before losing 28-14 to the Titans in a game where New Ulm challenged TCU for four quarters.

“We felt that we improved in all areas,” assistant coach Larry Wellmann said. “First of all, this was a game where there were no penalties called on either team and that is the first time I have seen that in all of my years of coaching. We improved there and we were even in the turnover battle so that was huge. And we put up two touchdowns, the kids really understood their roles and they executed the game plan and that was another great improvement.”

Wellmann said that it was not a case of simplifying things — they just added some wrinkles.

“The kids were really excited about their increased roles,” Wellmann said.

New Ulm did get down 14-0 right away.

“Being down 14-0 early this was a game that was going to go one way or the other. But the kids believed that they could do it. They trusted themselves and their teammates.”

Wellmann said that the kids were very upbeat tied at halftime.

“We knew that we could be in that position.”

Wellmann gave kudos to all of the seniors.

“And junior Marqavion Haeffner had 18 tackles from his safety position. [Sophomore] Ty Frederick had 10 tackles and sophomore Colton Benson had a great game and [sophomore] quarterback Ayden Jensen played one of his better games of the year.

“The blueprint that the seniors provided the team this year with their hard work, attitude and effort will be something that will be carried forward. We believe that.”

USC A TOUGH TEAM: New Ulm Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux said that his team struggled with stopping the run in their Section 2A playoff game against United South Central in a 39-7 road loss to the Rebels Tuesday.

“We had expected them to throw the ball a lot because of what we saw on film,” he said. “But it was very windy down there and that actually played into their hands. They kept the ball on the ground and we struggled trying to stop their running game. That was our downfall all season — the teams that were tough on us were the teams that ran the ball consistently at us.”

He said that they were prepared for the Rebels’ running game as well as the passing game.

“It is just that we were focusing more on their passing game,” Lux said. “When they kept running the football we did not step up and make the tackle. The time of possession was heavily in their favor. They are a very solid team.

“They played good competition,” Lux said. “They played Lester Prairie, Blooming Prairie and St. Clair/Mankato Loyola so they have been tested all year.”

Lux said that the Greyhounds scored on their first drive of the game.

“And we did have some spurts where we got our offense going and moved the football but when you are playing defense as long as we were, you get wore down. And it showed up when we had the football, especially on the line of scrimmage. They controlled the offensive and defensive lines. They controlled the game from the get-go.”

The Greyhounds do have some younger players for the future.

“We had a freshman and three sophomores starting and the juniors and senors really took them under their wings.”

Lux said that numbers are good coming up.

“We are the smallest school enrollment-wise playing 11-man football in Minnesota.”