NEW ULM — The seventh week of high school football on the local front sees teams trying to position themselves for the postseason playoffs.

Minnesota Valley Lutheran is on the road to face Redwood Valley in a South Central-Silver contest Friday while New Ulm Cathedral entertains Renville County West in a Nine-Man South District, West Subdistrict game.

New Ulm High School hosts Jordan on Friday in a non-district game.

RENVILLE COUNTY WEST (1-5) AT NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (5-1) FRIDAY 7 P.M., JOHNSON FIELD

New Ulm Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux said that the Jaguars’ 1-5 season mark does not indicate how good of team they really are.

“They have lost some close games and have been a top three finisher in the section for the last three or four years,” Lux said. “We know that we are in for a heck of a game. They are real disciplined. On defense they play their positions really well. And on offense they have a quarterback and a running back that have a lot of speed.

“They do some veer-type looks and once our defensive ends come down to fast that quarterback will keep it and try to get outside. They do run a lot of screens and they will throw the ball downfield, but it is more of a control-type passing game.”

Lux said that forecasted weather of rain and wind will be hard to say how it will affect the teams.

“It is hard to say, but it will be there for both teams to hold onto the ball and not fumble,” he added. “They don’t need to throw the ball — they have a good running game — and we do, too … You have to play football and hang onto the ball.”

MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (3-3) AT REDWOOD VALLEY (4-2) FRIDAY 7 P.M., REDWOOD FALLS

MVL head coach Jim Buboltz knows that this is just another tough game for his Chargers.

“We knew that our last five games of the regular season were going to be super competitive for us,” he said. “This is a team that is a little bit more like us in that they like to spread it out a little bit — get the ball up in the air a little bit more — and so we are looking at a spread offense. So we have to be ready for that. They are more pass than run.”

One of the things that Buboltz wants to find Friday is more rhythm from his offense than just looking at big plays.

“We had four plays of over 40 yards [Friday], which was good, but we have to be able to maintain drives,” he said. “That is something that we need to do Friday. And by doing that it obviously keeps the other team’s offense away from having the ball.”

Buboltz said that he is looking at getting some of his players back to their natural positions.

“We have had a few guys playing out of place right now, so if we can try and get them back to natural spots and see if we have a couple of younger players willing and ready to step up. They will get a lot of downs on our special teams.”

Buboltz said that the big factor in all of this is that the Chargers need to get healthy.

“We have lost seven starters from the beginning of the year who sat out last Friday,” he said. “That is difficult at any time and we need to get healthy and when we do that we can be a pretty dangerous team.”

Buboltz knew that this was the hardest part of the schedule.

“This was the bigger end of the Class AA football schools as far as population and size goes,” he said. “This is a reintroduction for us back into AA football. This is the same grind and schedule that we will have next year. This will give us an idea of what we are dealing with.”

Buboltz said that if the Chargers can get going right away in the game, then they are in good shape.

“If we take a couple of blows right away then we have a tougher time. The kids have to believe that we can do this again and get ourselves back into playing winning football.”

JORDAN (4-2) AT NEW ULM (4-2) 7 P.M., NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL

New Ulm High School head football coach Derek Lieser knows that the Jordan Hubmen are a good football team.

“They beat Marshall earlier in the year and they also played St. Peter tough,” Lieser said. “We know that Jordan is going to come in ready to go.”

The Eagles will be facing two factors in the home game Friday.

One is the Hubmen’s offense.

“They run the no-huddle offense,” Lieser said. “They go at their own tempo — they try and get themselves in the right play offensively.”

That offense brings some issues to the Eagles’ defense.

“Defending that takes a lot of communication,” Lieser said. “Our linemen need to be able to communicate. Our guys need to be able to communicate changes for blitzes or coverages to our players efficiently. But it helps that at practice we do some no-huddle stuff, too. It requires some practice and getting used to — we need to get lined up quickly. You usually have breaks in between plays but they have the capability so speed it up and slow it down.

“You can get caught with too many men on the field, so you have to anticipate your substitutions. It can limit defensively what you can get in as far as changes. You have to be on point with that.”

The other issue and one that will affect both teams is the weather.

“It is going to be good weather if you are a duck,” Lieser said. “It is going to be windy and rainy. They are about 60-40 run and they will try and spread you out.”

Lieser said that the key for the Eagles may be their ability to keep sustained ground drives in the potential rainy weather.

“We are going to have to look for creative ways to run the ball when you get into these type of weather conditions,” Lieser said. “We are going to find different ways to get the ball in our playmakers’ hands.

“We need to take care of the football — that will be one of the keys Friday.”