Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Jake Finstad (15) celebrates with Jevan Wilfahrt (3) after kicking the game-winning extra point in overtime against St. James Area on Friday at Johnson Field in New Ulm. Also pictured in the background are the Greyhounds’ Joe Gillis (52) and Kyle Seidl (5).

NEW ULM — It took an arm and a leg from sophomore quarterback Jake Finstad to give the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds their first win of the season.

After throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass in overtime to tie things up, his extra-point kick gave the Greyhounds a 29-28 win over St. James Area in a Southwest District football game Friday at Johnson Field.

Jake Finstad’s game-tying pass went to Jevan Wilfahrt, who also had 27 yards and a TD on the ground to go with two catches.

“It was a z-out,” Jake Finstad said of his TD pass to Wilfahrt. “I was just going to chuck it up to him and hopefully he catches it. He’s a good receiver.”

Wilfahrt also blocked a 21-yard field goal try by Ruben Zamora with seconds left to play to force OT.

The Saints got first crack at it in overtime, starting at the Greyhounds’ 10-yard line. A 5-yard TD grab by tight end Jack Westman on second and 5 gave the Saints a 28-22 lead. The Saints then elected to go for 2 and failed on a run by Hunter Stevens, giving the Greyhounds the chance to win with a TD and PAT.

While things didn’t look so good for Cathedral after a run for a loss of 1 and an incomplete pass, Jake Finstad found Wilfahrt to his left on a jump ball in the end zone.

“When we got to the overtime, where it’s 10 yards, then of course the play-action pass, everything kind of changes,” Greyhounds head coach Denny Lux said. “We ran the Michigan T for a couple of plays, and then we switched and put Jevan out wide because he’s such a good athlete, he made a play for us.”

Ben Blomberg got in on 13 tackles to lead the Greyhounds on defense, while Joe Gillis and Thomas Finstad were each in on 10 tackles. Gillis also recovered a fumble and blocked a punt, while Landon Klawitter had six tackles and a fumble recovery.

The Greyhounds came out with an 11-play drive on their first drive of the game, capping it off on a 1-yard TD QB sneak by Jake Finstad. His extra point made it 7-0 Cathedral with 5:01 left to play in the first quarter.

The Greyhounds looked good on defense to start the game, forcing a three-and-out on SJA’s opening drive. The Saints stormed back with a three-play second drive that ended in a TD run and a PAT, however, tying the game at 7-all with 4:27 left in the first quarter.

Wilfahrt had a 12-yard catch and a nice run on the next Cathedral drive, but a big hit jarred the ball loose from him in the red zone and the Saints recovered at their own 5. It took just one play after that to give the Saints a 14-7 lead after Sonny Heil found room down the right sideline for a 95-yard TD run with 43 seconds left in the opening quarter.

The Greyhounds got a fumble recovery back in the second quarter from Klawitter at the SJA 12-yard line. Four plays later the Greyhounds were back in front, 15-14, after a 4-yard TD run by Wilfahrt and a 2-point conversion pitch to Levi Franta.

Cathedral then ended the half strong on a 3-yard TD run by Kyle Seidl with 1:22 left in the half.

Momentum swung in the second half as SJA tied it on their first drive of the half with a 2-yard TD run and 2-point conversion run, both by Stevens. Cathedral also couldn’t get much of anything going on offense either, punting on four consecutive drives in the second half.

“I thought that we looked really good moving the ball the second quarter,” Lux said. “We knew we were going to get the opening kickoff to start the second half, so we were talking at halftime about what we have to do to keep that stuff going, and we just came out and St. James was ready for us. They played a good, good defensive front. The linebackers scraped well and they seemed to control the game that third quarter.”

But Wilfahrt’s fourth-quarter field goal block on fourth down was just the spark the Greyhounds needed going into OT.

FIRSTS ALL AROUND

While the Greyhounds had their share of setbacks offensively in the second half, they still pulled out their first win of the season. Jake Finstad also kept his composure late and earned his first varsity win at quarterback as a result.

“It’s very big,” Jake Finstad said of the win Friday. “I think all of our confidence will be up now going into next week.”

Lux also complimented his quarterback after the win but stressed the importance of giving him enough time to throw.

“Jake’s a good quarterback and he showed that in our first game with YME [Yellow Medicine East],” Lux said. “He brought us back in that second half — throwing the ball down the field. We’ve just got to give him time. We’ve got to get more full-speed reps in practice.

“You can tell that is takes us a little while to get caught up in that game speed. We put a lot of pressure on that offensive line when we’re throwing. And we’re sending four guys out, so we’ve got to just give those guys a better feel in practice.”

NEXT UP

The Greyhounds next travel to Sleepy Eye to take on the Sleepy Eye Indians at 7 p.m. Friday for another Southwest District game.