“Defensively, they were really, really putting pressure on our backside of our running game and catching us from behind at times,” Cathedral head coach Denny Lux said. “And then of course when we were throwing, they were bringing guys. They just had a real good scheme on offense and defense.”

The teams battled though the cold early November weather during the game, which may have affected passing opportunities, as both teams’ quarterbacks struggled to connect with receivers. What resulted was a battle of defense and the run game, which ended up favoring the Jaguars. RCW saw more explosive runs on its side, using speed options and pullers to spring lead back Jacob Savig for several long runs. Cathedral, meanwhile, was too slow to get to the edge at times, though quarterback Jake Finstad did find some running room up the middle in the game.

Cathedral punted six times in the game, four in the first half. Many pinned the Jaguars back deep, including Finstad’s first that was downed at the 1-yard line. Savig ripped off back-to-back big runs to get RCW out of danger of a safety, but the Cathedral defense forced a punt shortly after. Turnovers on downs and punts were the story of the first half, with strong defensive plays by both teams stalling drives before they got deep into enemy territory. On one such occasion, Colin Anderson nearly came away with an interception for Cathedral, but he fell just out of bounds, forcing an RCW punt. Cathedral’s longest drive of the half was just six plays and featured Finstad runs of 20 and 14, but a penalty on fourth down erased a conversion and the Greyhounds were unable to convert a second time, turning it over on downs.

After the halftime break, RCW nearly fumbled the ball away twice on its opening drive, but maintained possession both times, punting it away. However, on its next drive, RCW finally took advantage of a 20-yard Savig run, going 10 plays and ending the drive on a 3-yard run by Savig to score the first touchdown of the game.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Cathedral’s Josh Bentler (21) and Joey Schugel (54) and Renville County West’s Cole Gullickson (55) dive for a fumble during the Section 2 Nine-Man Football Championship game against Renville County West Friday at Lakeview High School in Cottonwood.

“They’re seeing that, in the defense that we’re in, they can spread it out even more on that little option,” Lux said. “That’s what gave them the score. They spread our defense out and pitch it to the edge of our defense. The linebackers have quite a ways to go to make the play.

“They’ve been playing this game for a long time. Their coaches do a great job moving guys around. They’ve got a few different sets offensively that they do, and they did a great job, seriously.”

One Cathedral punt later, and RCW extended the lead to 12 with a seven-play drive, ending in 27-yard reverse taken to the end zone by Griffin Howard. That left Cathedral with just six minutes left in the fourth quarter try a comeback, but the RCW defense kept the pressure up with a sack by Jeremy Walton. Cathedral turned it over on downs, and RCW was able to drain four minutes off the clock on the ensuing drive. A few desperation passes later, and the Jaguars sealed the victory to advance to the state tournament.

Finstad led the Greyhounds on offense with 45 yards rushing. Joe Gillis led the Cathedral defense with 22 tackles, while Joey Schugel had 14 tackles and Lane Ruch had 12. Finstad, Anderson and Brock Carlson each added nine tackles for the Greyhounds.

Cathedral ends its season with a 7-4 record and section runners-up. Lux said that, though the goal is never to end the season on a loss, this team did some great things throughout the season to get to the point they were at.

“No matter who you are or at what point, your loss always gets you down,” Lux said. “But you’ve got to look at the whole picture, and we did a lot of things this year that we haven’t done for a while. Our guys got us deep in the playoffs and we beat some good teams along the way. I think we won games we should have won, and we played well. But the enthusiasm for football at Cathedral is strong, and the guys saw some really good football games this year.”