Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Samuel Ibberson (84), Preston Holberg (4) and Hunter Lewandowski (59) join in to tackle St. Peter’s Grant Janni during a South Central District, Red Subdistrict football game at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — While it’s easy for any player to feel down after a fumble of his leads to points for the other team, sophomore Zach Hubbard didn’t let his first-half fumble ruin the rest of his Friday night at New Ulm High School.

In fact, he more than made up for it.

Hubbard’s leaping 30-yard touchdown grab in the fourth quarter, followed by Ethan Lieb’s PAT helped lift the New Ulm Eagles to a 14-13 win over St. Peter in a South Central District, Red Subdistrict football game.

After the Saints tied the game at 7-all with 50 seconds left in the first half on a 33-yard TD pass from senior quarterback Peyton Odland to Joshua Bosacker, Hubbard looked to have a nice return going for himself on the next kickoff. But the ball slipped out of his hands and was promptly recovered by the Saints, who took it into the end zone shortly after on a 7-yard run by Bosacker.

A 2-point try was no good, but the Saints led 13-7.

While the Eagles weren’t able to get much going for them in the third quarter, senior quarterback Ayden Jenson found Hubbard on a 30-yard TD pass to tie the game in the fourth. After Lieb’s PAT, the Eagles took their first lead since the second quarter with 8:20 left in the game.

“Zach Hubbard, he said it here at the end, ‘My mistake, coach, on that fumble at the end of the first half,” Eagles head coach Derek Lieser said. “But he’s a sophomore, he’s a great kid, never gives up, goes and makes a huge catch at the end of the game there over a defender, it was good coverage. The big message to the kids was continuing to battle, continuing to not give up, play for each other, trust in each other, and I’m just proud that the kids continue to do that.”

Up until that point, the Eagles weren’t able to get much going on offense. They only got into Saints territory three times during the game.

But two of those times led to points for New Ulm, and that was good enough for Jensen and the Eagles.

The first time the Eagles got into St. Peter territory came after a booming 73-yard punt by Lieb that was downed by Jensen at the St. Peter 1-yard line. While the punt had a little extra gusto to it with the wind, Lieb still hit the perfect spot on the ball and couldn’t have asked for a better bounce.

After forcing St. Peter to punt from its own end zone after a three-and-out, the Eagles set up shop from the Saints 27. After Colton Benson caught a pass up the middle and broke a tackle for 11 yards, Jensen found Easton Clark in the end zone for a 10-yard TD.

The Lieb PAT gave the Eagles the first lead of the game with 29 seconds left in the first quarter.

“St. Peter did a really nice job,” Lieser said. “We talked to the kids all week, they’re a physical team, they did a lot of nice things up front and made it tough for us to establish a ground game. And our line did enough to create some seems, create a pocket for Ayden.”

Jensen took his shots down the field despite Friday night winds hitting 20 miles per hour, but the Saints defense made it tough on him also.

“Their defense is good, I’ve got to give it to them, they knew our stuff,” Jensen said of St. Peter. “I think it just came down to execution, you know, hitting the one guy, the one guy always makes the one play when you don’t hit him. So I think it just came down to the one guy and not executing our plays fully.”

While Jensen would have liked to have had more completions, the throws he connected with his receivers on did the trick, especially the 30-yard connection with Hubbard.

“So I went over to coach with the wind to my back, third down, I kind of wanted to take a shot because I knew they played one-high safety,” Jensen said. “So I liked the look there, I kind of got flushed out of the pocket, so I decided to give Zach a chance with the ball and he came down with it.”

After taking the lead back late, the Eagles defense came up big after a fourth-down pass by Odland was intercepted by Preston Holberg at the New Ulm 23. Jensen rushed for two first downs on New Ulm’s next possession before kneeling the rest of the clock away.

Ian Brudelie also had an interception for the Eagles.

Saints junior running back Grant Janni suffered a leg injury early in the second quarter and was attended to. After a 20-minute pause in the action, Janni was stretchered off the field as he gave two thumbs up to the St. Peter crowd.

Lieser said he was sending his prayers to Janni and was hoping Janni is able to get the care he needs to get back on the road to recovery.

St. Peter (3-3) hosts Marshall next Friday, while New Ulm (4-2) hosts Jordan next Friday.