Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Bradyn Kube (19) breaks up a pass intended for New Ulm Cathedral’s Jevan Wilfahrt (3) during MVL’s Homecoming game with the Greyhounds at Johnson Field in New Ulm Friday night.

NEW ULM — Scoring a pair of touchdowns in each half Friday night, Minnesota Valley Lutheran did enough to pick up the Homecoming victory it was seeking as it downed New Ulm Cathedral 28-6 in a Southwest District football game.

MVL started the game off with a quick six-play drive into the end zone, getting a 25-yard touchdown keeper by quarterback Cole Thompson to cap the drive off with 10:05 left in the first quarter. Thompson then scored on a 2-point conversion run to give MVL an 8-0 lead.

Cathedral’s opening drive saw opposite success as the Greyhounds’ first play was a fumble and a loss of 6 yards. After two more plays went nowhere, the Greyhounds were forced to punt. No punt occurred, however, after a low snap for a fumble was recovered by Cathedral on its own 19-yard line for a turnover on downs.

MVL needed three plays after that to go up 14-0, getting a touchdown from Thompson to Kyler Flunker with 7:28 left in the first quarter. Both of Thompson’s first-half TDs came on option plays, with his second score seeing him fake a run before flipping the ball to Flunker on his right for the catch-and-run TD.

Flunker, who finished the day with two touchdowns on offense and an interception on defense, said the team collectively made plays when and where they needed to.

“We really saw how we needed to get the ball down the field,” Flunker said. “On defense, we really saw what we need to cover and where the ball was going, and that’s what we got done in the game.”

The Greyhounds improved their defense late in the quarter and got a fumble recovery by Thomas Finstad early in the second quarter at the MVL 36. Nothing good came from the fumble recovery for Cathedral as MVL took the ball back on a fourth-down interception by Flunker.

“I thought d-backs made the plays on the passing and we got better with the run in the third and fourth quarter,” MVL head coach Jim Buboltz said. “We had a tough second quarter, we had a good first and third quarter on the run. But I think again, Landen [Merseth] and Mal [Malachi Kohls] did a nice job of kind of handling the defensive side of things, too, and then we got some efforts from Kyler and [Bradyn] Kube in the back. Our d-backs made the plays they had to make.”

Cathedral found the red zone for the first time all game late in the first half and were able to put points on the board after a 10-play, 75-yard drive ended with a 4-yard TD run by Levi Jakes with 49 seconds left in the half.

“We went to the shotgun and we spread them out a little bit,” Cathedral head coach Denny Lux said. “Because when we’re in that double tight end set, we’re just getting too much pressure from these teams. MVL had a great game plan for our power-running game. We gave ourselves a chance, kept in the game, Jake at quarterback out in the open, throwing to different receivers and also a little bit inside running game out of that.”

The Greyhounds drove down the field to start the second half, getting the ball to the 21-yard line before a Jake Finstad pass intended for Isaac Miller in the end zone was picked off by Kube.

The Chargers put more points on the board with 2:48 left in the third quarter after Thompson broke tackles and found room down the left sideline for a 63-yard TD run. That run was the first play of that drive.

With 11:55 left to play, the Chargers got another touchdown after Thompson found Flunker in the middle of the end zone for an 18-yard score. Thompson then threw to Will Kaesermann for a 2-point conversion to make it 28-6.

“We have that momentum, when we’re down, we always pick it back up,” Flunker said. “We just motivate each other to do better no matter what the position is.”

Buboltz commended Cathedral’s efforts in the second and third quarters but was proud of how his team’s leadership was able to respond to adversity.

“Denny had his guys ready to go and they started coming at us the second and third quarter, and our guys were able to fight that off and come back,” Buboltz said. “That’s ultimately where our leadership is at with the line and with Cole making some plays and then getting the ball outside. I thought that collectively, that group was pretty special tonight, but I thought that Cole had a nice game. And we missed some reads, too, we missed some plays. This wasn’t our cleanest game, but what I’m happy with is facing adversity like we did … I think that Denny got the effort that he was looking for from his guys and they brought it.”

Lux also said that while MVL was tough and has been playing well all season, he was proud of his guys for showing up and making the Chargers work on Friday night.

“I’m just really proud because we played football tonight,” Lux said. “Tonight we played Cathedral football the whole night through and that makes me really proud and the coaching staff.”

Thomas Finstad ended the day with a sack and was in on 21 tackles to lead Cathedral, while Joe Gillis was in on 15 tackles and Jakes was in on 11 tackles. Offensively, Jevan Wilfahrt made three catches for 44 yards, while Kyle Seidl had three catches for 31 yards.

Merseth led the Chargers on defense with 18 tackles, while Kohls had seven tackles. Thompson also had a sack for the Chargers.

The Chargers, now 5-1 overall, travel to take on Murray County Central for a 7 p.m. game Thursday, while Cathedral (1-5) hosts Adrian Area at 7 p.m. Friday.