File photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm Cathedral’s Jake Finstad (15) throws a pass while teammate Alex Portner (12) readies to block during the Section 2, Nine-Man Football Championship game against Renville County West on Friday at Lakeview High School in Cottonwood.

NEW ULM — One of the things that really hurt New Ulm Cathedral in its 12-0 playoff lost to Renville County West Friday night in the Section 2, Nine-Man Football championship game was that the Greyhounds could not use senior 1,000-yard running back Josh Bentler in that contest on offense.

“He got hurt in our first playoff game against Nicollet,” Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux said. “It was early in that game and he got a high ankle sprain. From that point on we did not use him as a running back — he was able to play defensive end against Cedar Mountain and he played defensive end against Renville [County West]. He did a nice job at defensive end but he was not able to cut as far as playing offense.”

Lux said that Alex Portner did a nice job of filling in for Bentler.

“But the thing is for run-blocking and pass-blocking was tough for Alex because of his size.Alex can get through a hole as far as a running back but it did change (our offense). Josh is 180 pounds and as strong as an ox so that changed things for sure.”

Lux said that the Greyhounds did get running back Jaden Helget back from an injury he got in their third game of the season.

“So we rotated him in as a blocking back — he carried the ball a few times — but Renville played really stout defense. Offensively we were just playing between the 35 yard lines — we never really threatened to score — because that was where our offense was most of the game.”

He said that the more comfortable RCW got with their defensive backs up front the tougher that they got on their pass coverage.

“And as soon as they read pass they would blitz on of their linebackers,” Lux said. “We were giving Jake [Finstad, Greyhounds quarterback] as much protection as we could with our guys up front but they just over-powered us — flushed Jake out of the pocket — and they have speed on the edges that made it tough for him.”

This was a game between two very good defensive teams.

“We were right there all game long and it is unfortunate that we could not score,” Lux said. “Early in the second quarter we had a drive going — we got a couple of first downs — and we got a first down on a fourth down conversion.

“But we had a motion penalty on that and we did not recover from that. And that was probably our best drive of the game. If we could have scored in the first half that would have taken a lot of pressure off of our defense.”

Lux said that Renville County Wests size eventually wore down the Greyhounds.

“They have a 6-foot, 205-pound fullback that ran hard,” he said. ” He lowered his shoulder — he got extra yards after the first contact — and he wore us down. We have the same players playing offense and defense for us so after they have a long, five- or six-minute drive holding them on defense, we go on offense and we are a little bit wore out by then.”

Despite the loss that saw Cathedral finish 7-4 and reach a section championship game for the 14th time in the last 30 years, Lux said that it was a really good year.

“We adapted to a lot of things throughout the year,” he said. “I am just thankful for the players because we were changing offenses early on, so I had to figure out what was the best for Cathedral High School was in nine-man football.

“I really appreciate the players and how patient they were. They kept learning and followed our direction. We had 36 players out this year and it looks like our numbers will stay good for quite a while. We have a big seventh grade class with 15 players in it and our fifth graders have big numbers. The numbers game in football is huge because kids all develop at a different time. They may not look like they can play as a freshman, but all of a sudden as a junior they develop.”

Now two years into nine-man football, Lux thinks that the talk about the change to nine-man is over.

“We have won 13 games the last couple of years. We know what we are doing. Renville is a good team that is the only reason that our season is over.”