Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Cathedral’s Josh Bentler (21) carries a ball while Josh Forstner (9) leads the way blocking during a Nine Man South District, West Subdistrict football game against Westbrook-Walnut Grove Friday at Johnson Field.

NEW ULM — In the first half of the game between Westbrook-Walnut Grove and New Ulm Cathedral, the Chargers of WWG ran 30 offensive plays compared to 21 for the Greyhounds.

The Chargers did not score on any of them but New Ulm Cathedral did.

The Greyhounds scored on all seven of their possessions in the first half to build a 52-0 halftime lead enroute to a 64-0 blanking of the Chargers Friday night in a South District-West Division Nine-man game at Johnson Field.

Josh Bentler scored three touchdowns for the Greyhounds. Bentler had scoring runs of 60, 65 and 36 yards while Alex Portner broke off touchdown runs of 4 and 7 yards with Eli Anderson adding a 13 yard run. Jake Finstad scored twice on runs of 30 and 35 yards while throwing a 53-yard touchdown pass to Colin Anderson.

For the game, Bentler carried the ball nine times for 184 yards with Portner rushing for 129 yards on seven carries. Finstad ran for 72 yards on three carries.

All in all, it was a total domination by Cathedral over Westbrook-Walnut Grove that did not surprise Cathedral head coach Denny Lux.

“I was not surprised by the way we played tonight,” he said. “We have been tested by three good football teams and that showed tonight. We came out and we responded — we learned so much from the previous games that we had, and we were really able to play a solid game tonight.”

The Greyhounds opened the scoring after Lane Ruch stepped in front of a Kevin Curry pass on the Cathedral 24-yard line. It would be the first of three turnovers forced in the first half.

A pass interference penalty against the Chargers, a 15-yard pass from Finstad to Joe Gillis set the stage for a 29-yard scoring run from Finstad. A 2-point conversion run from Bentler made it 8-0.

The Greyhounds defense set up the second Cathedral touchdown when they forced a three-and-out and took over after a punt on their own 40-yard line. But it took just one play to score when Bentler broke off a 60-yard touchdown run. Another Bentler 2-point run made it 16-0.

Colin Anderson’s intercepted Curry on the Chargers next possession and three plays later, Finstad scampered 35 yards for a score and a 24-0 lead with 2:40 left in the opening quarter.

The Greyhounds defense held again and forced a Chargers punt.

On the Greyhounds first play, Bentler raced 65 yards for another score and a 30-0 lead after the first quarter.

A Colin Anderson pick early in the second quarter resulted in a four-play, 55-yard scoring drive capped by a Bentler 35-yard touchdown run and a 38-0 cushion.

Two more defensive stops by the Greyhounds defense late in the first half resulted in two more touchdowns — one on a 53-yard scoring pass from Finstad to Anderson and a second score on a Portner 4-yard run for a 52-0 halftime lead.

“Our guys flew to the ball tonight,” Cathedral defensive coordinator Jesse Nosbush said. “They played defense fast, the way that we have coached them. It all came together tonight and they did what we needed them to. We have seen some smash-mouth stuff and some spread stuff — they are learning how to defend both styles.”

Touchdowns from Portner and Anderson in the third quarter made it 64-0 going into the final quarter.

Defensively, Joe Gillis had 11 tackles with Brock Carlson and Bentler in on seven tackles. Colin Anderson had two interceptions.

The Greyhounds (2-2) are at Madelia next week.