Chargers take on JCC powerhouse
NEW ULM — The Sixth Week of the high school season locally has just the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds in town. The Greyhounds are riding a two-game winning streak at home on Friday as they host Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman at 7 p.m. at Johnson Field.
Minnesota Valley Lutheran travels to powerhouse Jackson County Central Friday. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The New Ulm Eagles head to St. Peter for a clash with the Saints.
MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (2-3) AT JACKSON COUNTY CENTRAL (5-0) 7 P.M. JACKSON
Hyperbole aside, the Huskies are a very scary team.
They come in a 5-0 and are ranked 10th in the latest QRF rankings. They are averaging 55 points a game and permitting only 5.6 points a game. Both are best in Class 2A in the state.
Minnesota Valley Lutheran head football coach Jim Buboltz feels that Jackson is not only one of the best teams in Class 2A. “But I think that they are one of the best teams in all of Minnesota in all classes,” he said. “And they have one of the biggest recruits in Minnesota at quarterback (junior Roman Voss). He has received DI offers from all over.”
Voss has received offers from Minnesota, Iowa State USC and other DI programs.
“They are a formidable opponent and that is putting it lightly,” Buboltz said.
And the Huskies are a team that brings a balanced offense to the field.
“They do not have to get tricky with anything they do and you hope that they stick with basic offense,” Buboltz said. “There are a lot of quarterback-designed runs — there is a lot of speed to the outside. Can you get them to stay between the tackles — you need to have that kind of mentality to do something like that — and that is something that we are going to talk about all week in practice. We need to keep them between the tackles because once they get outside they have speed all over.”
Buboltz feels that the best defense for his team Friday may well be how his well his offense can control the time of possession.
“This will be a lot like the Luverne game where we have to go one play at a time,” he said. “It is not a case getting back how many points because they can score in a hurry and from any distance and in a hurry. So it is more in a line of things like can you keep the ball out of their hands long enough so we can use a lot of clock. We don’t have to get flashy — we just have to take the yards that they give you and hopefully we can break one.”
That happened in their meeting last season.
“Last year we had five plays of over 40 yards against them and outside of their loss to Barnesville [38-23 in state tournament] we scored the most amount of points against them in the two games that we played. So if you try and do too much, you are going to get overwhelmed.”
Buboltz again referred to how important it will be Friday to keep the Huskies offense between the tackles and avoid the big plays.
“Luverne scored their touchdowns against us on all big plays and they only had one big drive on us,” Buboltz said.
“Jackson has all of that big play capability too and then some. Last week against Pipestone, our scores came off of movements on our defensive side — we confused them — and that kept us in the game long enough for us to have an opportunity to win that game. This game here could take all of that and then some.”
GHEC/TRUMAN (2-3) AT NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (3-2) FRIDAY NIGHT 7 P.M. JOHNSON FIELD
The Jaguars come into this game playing a Greyhounds team that has posted back-to-back shutouts in their last two games and scored 110 points in them.
The Jaguars are coming in off of a 26-0 loss to Renville County West last week.
“They are a really good football team,” Cathedral head coach Denny Lux said. “They have speed in the backfield and in their secondary. They are going to match up with our speed pretty well. Their quarterback is quick and does somethings in the backfield to help get some blockers out in front of him — he can get to the edge pretty quick. What they do they do very well.”
Lux said that GHEC/Truman will present a power look in the backfield.
“They will run their tailback off of the edge but a lot of it is at quarterback,” he said. “He can throw deep and he can throw the intermediate passes well. He is quick and he can run the ball.”
Lux added that the films that they have seen of the Jaguars indicates that they have a strong running game.
“But we like where we are at right now,” he said. “Our last few games we have learned more about ourselves. We have scored points in our last two games but points will come tougher Friday. And what you are seeing now is that we have other players scoring — we need to keep getting four players involved.”
Lux said that sophomore Lane Ruch has stepped into a key linebacking role for his team.
“He compliments Joe Gillis real well and our defensive ends Josh Bentler and Joey Schugel are playing pretty well,” he said. “And they are first-year defensive end and that is a tough place to be playing. And now we got Brock Carlson back from injury and that has helped our game up the middle solid.”
He feels that the team that takes best advantage of opportunties will come out on top.
NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (3-2) AT ST.PETER (3-2) FRIDAY NIGHT ST. PETER HIGH SCOOL
Both teams enter this meeting at 3-2 on the season and both teams hold wins over Albert Lea and Belle Plaine with the Saints coming off of a 14-13 win over Belle Plaine last week.
“They have played in a lot of close games — they beat Albert Lea by two points and their game with Jordan was a one score game before St. Peter made it a two-score game at the end for a win,” New Um coach Derek Lieser said. “They are battle-tested and this is a natural rivalry game — kids on both teams know each other well and it is their Homecoming. They played us tough last year. Both games were close [14-13 and 16-15 wins for New Ulm].”
The Saints are a team that has gone more to the run game in their last three contests.
“It is about 75-25 run,” Leiser said. “They use a lot of motion with a lot of counter and misdirection — they will pull players one way and go in the opposite direction — so they use a lot of motion in the backfield.”
When the Saints do air out the ball, it is one the arm of Alex Korir.
“So they do have some nice options and weapons,” Leiser said.
Lieser said the Saints have not put up a lot of points yet this year. “But they do have the capability to do that.”
Lieser feels that New Ulm’s defense will be leaned on,“Looking back to the game against Fairmont, if you look at the scoreboard and you see 47 points — we gave up a kick return for a touchdown, a blocked punt for a touchdown and throw a pick on your own 19-yard line, there were times when our defense did not give up points. We have relied on our defense all year and that will continue to be the theme. We are not going to put up 40 points a game, especially now with some injuries in key spots. We have players who are learning on the fly so we know that we are going to have to rely on our defense to keep us in ballgames. And offensively we just have to do enough — our biggest challenge for us is to that we are moving the ball OK but we need to finish in the red zone. We need to put points on the board.”
Lieser feels that the Saints may also try and shut down the Eagles’ ground game and force freshman quarterback Owen Castleman to beat them.
“But if Owen has time, he can thread the needle. They may bring pressure on him or different defensive looks. They will scheme up things to try and fluster him so we need to do things to help him. We are happy with the progress that he has made this year.”
Wide receiver Jamison Portner, who left the Fairmont game last week with an injury, is recovering from it.
“It is not season-ending but right now it is managing that pain tolerance,” Leiser said. “So we will see if he is ready to go Friday.”
This game is also a big Section 2AAAA game for both teams at 3-2. QRF has St. Peter and New Ulm No. 2 and No. 3 respectively behind 4-1 Marshall.
“But the seeding in our section is by coaches vote,” Lieser said. “So this is a big game, but last year we had three more wins than the team that was below us in the section standings and we got voted behind them. So it could happen again this year where Willmar, who is 0-5, may make the argument that they are playing tougher teams. We cannot control that at the end of the day. Ultimately we have to control what we can control and give ourselves a chance on Friday night — this game has big section implications.”