Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Joe Gillis (40) tackles Cedar Mountain’s Jackson Guetter (16) out of bounds during a Nine-Man South District, West Subdistrict football game Friday evening at Johnson Field in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds put up three consecutive touchdowns Friday evening at Johnson Field and their defense was a big reason for it.

The Greyhounds did give up a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but their strong start was enough to lift them to an 18-8 win over the Cedar Mountain Cougars in a Nine-Man South District, West Subdistrict football game.

After a tough 28-14 road loss in Edgerton last week, Friday’s win gave the Greyhounds some pep back in their step.

“We played well last week up against a good football team,” Cathedral head coach Denny Lux said. “Obviously Cedar Mountain’s got a good football team, so we feel really good about this because you want to build on that confidence and you’ve got a quicker step when you’ve got confidence.”

Josh Bentler finished with 28 carries for 136 yards to lead the Greyhounds on offense, while quarterback Jake Finstad had six carries for 36 yards and a TD run.

One of the big reasons the Greyhounds were able to earn a much-needed win against the Cougars came down to some big plays on defense and stopping the run early.

“It all started with stopping the run,” Cathedral defensive coordinator Jesse Nosbush said. “We did a really good job, the linebackers filled really well and we have some athletes that can play out at D-back this year, too, so that’s nice. Our D-line got pressure on them, so they couldn’t really sit back there and be comfortable. But, yeah, we kind of set things up, they have one really good receiver in [Blake] Steffl, and we tried to have a little extra help to cover him because he’s a heck of a player.”

Cedar Mountain, after making it to state last season, dropped to 0-2 on the year. The Cougars were shut out 31-0 at home a week ago against Mountain Lake Area.

Cougars quarterback Carson Schiller completed 16 of 29 passes for 96 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

“Especially with the game after Mountain Lake, they sent a lot of pressure and we knew they were going to try to do the same thing,” Schiller said. “We swap out a lot of guys. We kind of expected that, tried to get the ball out quick, but they’ve got some good linebackers and they had some corners that made some plays.”

Schiller felt the Cathedral pressure early and was unable to get much going as a result in the first half. The Cougars started with a three-and-out on their first drive of the game and Schiller had a deep pass intercepted by Josh Forstner on the Cougars’ second drive. After that interception that Forstner took 15 yards to midfield, the Greyhounds got a pair of big runs, one a 21-yarder by Finstad and another a 20-yard run by Bentler, to get a first-and-goal opportunity.

The Greyhounds were stopped short in three tries before Finstad was forced to pass on fourth down, where he found Colin Anderson in the end zone for a 5-yard TD with 11:17 left in the second quarter.

The Cougars again couldn’t get much going in their third drive of the day, going three-and-out. This time, however, the Greyhounds got a punt return for a touchdown by Anderson of 62 yards to lead 12-0 with 9:31 left in the half.

The Cougars started the second half with the ball, but the Greyhounds’ defense quickly got it back after a big hit from Joe Gillis caused a fumble that was scooped up by Jaden Helget and taken to the Cedar Mountain 15-yard line. After two runs made it third-and-9, Finstad took a QB keeper to the left sideline and into the end zone for a 9-yard score, giving his team an 18-0 lead with 8:49 left in the third quarter.

Gillis ended up leading the Greyhounds on defense with 14 tackles, one for a loss.

Gillis, a senior linebacker, said he liked the mix of run and pass Cedar Mountain tried because it gave him more opportunities to pressure the quarterback.

“I get to go play my game and they basically just put me on an island,” Gillis said. “They say, ‘Go do what you want to do,’ I just go out there and do it. I mean, there’s nothing better than just running the ball at each other, putting your heads down and hitting each other, but when you’re able to open up the gaps and take shots at the quarterback, all game, nothing better than that.”

Bentler added 10 tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery for the Cathedral defense, while Forstner finished with two interceptions.

Gillis added that while he had fun making plays, he said relying on his teammates to make plays was the biggest reason for the Greyhounds’ success on Friday.

“I hounded Josh Forstner every single play at practice, every time he missed it [in practice], he was there [today],” Gillis said. “Come game time, two interceptions, five tackles. Awesome, came up to the occasion, made a great play, awesome player there. Jaden Helget hadn’t covered anyone all year on the pass, his entire job this game was cover 13 [Steffl], that’s what he did. Awesome job by him, too.”

The Cougars broke through in the fourth with a 14-play drive that ended on a 10-yard touchdown pass to Steffl with 9:58 left to play. A 2-point conversion pass to Jackson Guetter gave the game its final score. Guetter ended up with seven receptions for 32 yards, while Steffl had four catches for 30 yards and 18 carries for 71 yards.

Steffl also had 16 tackles, while Guetter had 10 and Aaron Heidemann recovered a fumble.

Schiller said the schedule won’t get any easier for the Cougars going forward and said they’ll need to figure things out in practice in order to turn things around.

“We’ve got some tough games coming up, too, I think we play Edgerton and then Hills [-Beaver Creek] is our Homecoming [on Sept. 27], so I think just a lot of good practices, we need those,” Schiller said. “Lot of new guys in new spots … we lost a lot of good starters and a lot of good leaders. We’ve got some good leadership, though, this year and the seniors with our receiver Blake Steffl and top linemen. I think these next practices, we’ve just got to focus, really lock in and just figure out how to put points on the board and keep our defense to get stops.”

Cathedral travels to Lamberton to take on Red Rock Central at 7 p.m. Friday, while Cedar Mountain hosts Renville County West at 7 p.m. Friday.