By Jim Bastian

Jornal Sports Writer

NEW ULM — Week 4 of the local high school football season means that teams are already halfway through their regular season schedule.

New Ulm High School looks to go 4-0 Friday when they travel to Worthington, while Minnesota Valley Lutheran gets on the bus for a game 33 miles away from the Eagles’ contest when they square off against Luverne.

New Ulm Cathedral is the only team that will taste home cooking Friday when they meet Westbrook-Walnut Grove for their first-ever meeting with WWG at Johnson Field.

All three games will kick off at 7 p.m.

MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (2-1) AT LUVERNE (3-0) 7 P.M., FRIDAY, REDBIRD FIELD

The Chargers are looking to rebound from a 31-20 road loss to Le Sueur-Henderson last week, while Luverne looks to improve to 4-0 on the season.

MVL head coach Jim Buboltz knows that the Cardinals, who beat the Chargers 36-0 last season, are a big team that has a history of being very successful.

“It is a long drive (123 miles), but we are going to do our best to put our boys in a game plan to win,” Buboltz said.

And the Cardinals are a big team that has a simple game plan — run the ball — and it has been successful. In their first three games, the Cardinals have scored 25 points, 20 points and last week put up 56 points against Sibley East.

“They are going to line up and run the ball.” Buboltz said. “Last year we played them and they threw the ball one time.”

Buboltz said that in order to stop the Cardinals ground game, his defense is going to have to do a better job of tackling then they did in last week’s game against LSH.

“They had a big 240-pound running back who was tough to bring down, but it still comes down to getting to that right gap first and then make sure you are wrapping up with the tackle,” he said. “[Luverne] running backs have a little bit of everything — they have big fullbacks, quick tailbacks and a big offensive line and an agile quarterback, so you are going to see a lot of leads, option and fullback dives.”

Buboltz said that he probably will not change his defensive scheme for this game.

“But you know that they could pass, but in the big picture if you don’t stop the run first, they are not going to stop running,” he said. “They are big and physical on both sides of the ball — you see a lot of talent out there.”

As far as the Chargers’ offense goes, Buboltz thinks his team needs to take a little bit at a time.

“Not try and do to much,” he said. “Take what they give you and tha is really what it gets down to against them. When we have been successful against them in the past, that is the type of thing that we did — be as methodical as we can be and try and maintain the ball as much as we can. Big plays is something that they do not give up — we only ran 38 offensive plays against them last year.”

For the Chargers, this is the first of three games that may be the toughest three-game stretch for any team. Next week, they host a currently 3-0 Pipestone team before traveling to Jackson County Central the week after to face an unbeaten Huskies team.

“This will be a challenge for the kids,” Buboltz said. “But there is also an understanding that if we come out and get better and more physical with the ball, that is going to help us for the rest of our games. It is a mountain to climb.

“But I have been saying it all year. A reaction to a negative action — when something happens negative to you, it is how are you going to react. We played better in the second half last week so hopefully we can carry that to Friday.”

WESTBROOK-WALNUT GROVE (1-2) AT NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (1-2) 7 P.M., FRIDAY, JOHNSON FIELD

Both the Chargers and the Greyhounds are coming off of losses last week, with WWG losing to Heron Lake-Okabena/Lakefield and the Greyhounds falling to Red Rock Central.

In the first-ever football meeting between the two schools, Greyhounds head coach Denny Lux said that the WWG Chargers run a lot of different offensive sets.

“They move their receivers around a lot,” he said. “They have been a strong nine-man program for a lot of years. Coach Carter Ross over there will throw screens, motion — he does the whole gambit of what nine-man football is about. We have our work cut out for us defensively, so we are going to have to watch film and study their plays so we have an idea of what is coming.”

Lux added that with this being the two teams’ first meeting, the Greyhounds will have plenty of film to watch.

“Because of the first two years of nine-man, we are playing teams that we have never played before,” he said. “They did come over and scrimmage our B-squad last year. So we really have to watch a lot of film to see their strengths and weaknesses.

“It is just part of high school football when you play a new team. Teams get moved around in different sub-districts and sections.”

Lux said that the WWG Chargers are a mostly junior-dominated team.

“They know football and this is going to be a good game,” he said.

Lux added that he wants to see his team improve the most on their tackling.

“That hurt us last week — we did not tackle well at all,” he said. “But we do know that they are going to put the ball in the air more, so it will be like defending Cedar Mountain.”

Lux said that Jaden Helget’s status for the game was unknown early in the week.

“We will look at him in a few days to see how his injury is coming along,” Lux said. “But we have to come out Friday and play our game and playing at a pace that fits us. We want to be confident in what we are doing on the field.

“We are slowly working away from some of our Wing-T stuff and moving into a different caliber of offense. Changes do not happen overnight — we have been a team where you have three running backs and they are all carrying the ball about equal time. It takes a little transition time for not only the players but the coaches.”

Regardless of his options on the ground, Lux said he’s confident in his senior quarterback Jake Finstad.

“We have a great thrower in Jake Finstad and he has three or four guys he can throw to that run good routes, so that is the direction that we are headed to,” Lux said.

NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (3-0) AT WORTHINGTON (0-3), 7 P.M, FRIDAY, WORTHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL

Even though the Worthington Trojans enter their Homecoming game with the Eagles at 0-3, New Ulm High School head football coach Derek Lieser knows that this is going to be a tough road game for his squad.

“They had tough draws in their first two games with Luverne and Jackson County Central — both 3-0 — so they had a couple of tough opening matchups to start the year,” Lieser said. “And then last week they were in a competitive game with Belle Plaine. When you watch film of them, there are times when they look a little bit unorganized, but then there are times when you can really see the athleticism that they have.

“They have some good receivers and their running back is a nice player. They are going to try and get the ball in his hands at running back as much as they can — their receivers are long and lanky, so we are certainly not looking ahead. We need to make sure we show up ready to play.”

New Ulm was also recently ranked No. 10 in Class AAAA in the prep polls that were released Tuesday.

Three games in, it could be said that the Eagles’ strength has been their defense that has allowed 14, 7 and 7 points in those games.

“I would argue that our last two games could have been shutouts,” Lieser said. “They have done a nice job — we have improved our tackling — but losing Preston [Holberg] at safety is going to be a big hole to fill. And I will take little if any credit at all for this.

“Our kids are doing a great job reading their keys — they see formations and are calling out what to expect. This is really to their credit because they are putting in the extra time and they understand the importance on that side of the ball. If we play good defense, we are going to be in games. Offense is what gets written up about, but defense is what has led us to be successful.”

Lieser said that offensively, the New Ulm running game has been another key to the success so far.

“Even in the first couple of games where we threw the ball really well having the threat of that run game has been key,” Lieser said. “Our run game may look different now [with Holberg out at quarterback]. Both [Noah Mertz and Owen Castlemann are] quarterbacks who could potentially get playing time will not be quite the elusive runner that Preston was. We may get Zach [Hubbard] more touches in that Wildcat spot may happen.

“Running the ball keeps the clock running and when you are a defensive-minded team, the clock can be your friend. We are going to lean on the run game and try and manufacture some easy throws for our young quarterback.”

Lieser said that the current group of seniors have been very coachable.

“I may have had more talented teams in the past, but this team’s work ethic has been a big key for us.”

Lieser said that the key to Friday’s South District, Central-Red Subdistrict game is taking care of the ball and limiting big plays.

“And make a few more plays than they do,” he said. “We have the chance to go 4-0 and I told the kids I do not remember the last time that New Ulm High School football has been 4-0 and getting there would be a great accomplishment.”