The local high school football season begins in New Ulm this Thursday with all three teams opening at home.

At 4 p.m. at Johnson Field, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers host defending state Class A champions Minneota and at 8 p.m., New Ulm Cathedral plays Red Rock Central.

At New Ulm High School, the Eagles meet Austin at 7 p.m. in their first-ever meeting in football.

All three schools

prepped for their first

games with scrimmages on Saturday.

MVL scrimmaged a very good Sleepy Eye United team.

Head coach Jim Buboltz said that what he looked for in the scrimmage was not that the Chargers were knocking off big plays offensively but that his team was using correct blocking schemes and the timing of the plays.

“I thought that our blocking got better as did how hard our backs ran,” he said.

Sophomore Eli Schauland has earned the keys to the Chargers offense at quarterback this season.

“He was nervous early in the scrimmage early, but he worked that out in a hurry and completed a lot of passes. He had a complete understanding of the plays and he got the guys in and out of the huddle — he commanded the huddle and was done in a timely manner.”

Senior Ethan Schauland is the backup quarterback.

In the backfield, Buboltz was pleased with the running of Chase Tweit and Ben Riesgraf, two sophomores that ran the ball well.

“You could tell that Chase had a few more varsity games under his belt than Ben did — we are going to need them both as the year goes on — and I think that Chase is ready to have a big year,” Buboltz said. “He has worked very hard.”

Buboltz said he has three wide receivers who are 6-foot -3 or bigger in Pierson Brau, Trace Gunderson and Blake Sexton.

“They are going to create some match-up problems,” Buboltz said.

Buboltz also turned the defensive coordinator spot this year to Nate Doering.

“He did a real nice job, I was super impressed with our linebacker play and our (defensive) linemen played well — they were not worried about getting deep in the backfield but coming down into their gap,” Buboltz said. “And I was impressed with our run defense, but they got us on our pass defense a couple of times on deep stuff over the middle. But all in all, I was pretty excited that we can stop the run first.”

Asked to grade his team on the scrimmage, Buboltz graded them out at a B-.

The Chargers have a brutal schedule this season. After their game with Minneota, they face a good Pipestone team in Week 3 before traveling to Jackson County to take on the defending Class AA state champs in the Jackson County Central Huskies.

New Ulm High School, meanwhile, went to Albert Lea and faced Cannon Falls, Dover-Eyota and then Bloomington Kennedy.

Eagles head coach Derek Lieser said that he split quarterback time between sophomore Owen Castleman and junior Noah Mertz. Both of them saw extended playing time last season.

“We feel that they both give us a legitimate chance to win,” Buboltz said. “So whoever we determine is our starter we have a backup that we feel confident in.”

Lieser said that they both have command of the huddle. “But Owen is more physical and has a little bit stronger arm where Noah is more wiry and has a good command of

the playbook.”

Lieser said that his players up front were more physical and that he had good play on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

“Tanner Backer, Isaiah Friese, Tilken Fruhwirth, Brady Seidl and Riley Hacker started up front for us on offense and Isaiah, Tilken and Riley started for us on the line on defense,” Lieser said. “We mixed in some Lincoln Haime and Parker Ranweiler — they did a nice job overall.”

Lieser was also happy with the running of Dirk Haynes and Parker Ranweiler. “They did a nice job of running with low pads,” Lieser said. “We do not return a ton of experience in the backfield — Dirk did not get a lot of carries last year as a junior and Parker did not get any varsity carries. I was pleasantly surprised with those two.”

New Ulm Cathedral head coach Denny Lux and his Greyhounds scrimmaged with Wabasso and Cedar Mountain.

“We got about three- fourths of our team get their first varsity action,” he said.

This season — like MVL — there is a new signal-caller under center for the Greyhounds with junior Eli Anderson at quarterback.

“He did a nice job — we ran some option and some veer, so offensively we are looking at things differently than in the past.” Lux said. “We felt our offensive line did a good job of pass-blocking and he has some nice targets, especially in Josh Forstner.”

Lux was also happy with the performance of offensive guards Logan Klawitter and Henry Forst.

“And having Ike Kirchstein back in the middle helped our guards and our two tight ends Lane Ruch and Andrew Stern did a pretty good job for us,” he said.

Lux said that running back Alex Portner has speed.

“But more of an asset is his balance and that comes from wrestling,” Lux said. “He did a good job for us in the playoffs, so he is ready to be that starter now all year.”

On defense Lux said that the Greyhounds need to stop the run.

“We need to shore up our defensive line and get our linebackers filling the gaps really quick,” Lux said.

Lux graded out his team in the scrimmage with a B.

“For a bunch of guys get- ting their first varsity look, we did a good job and as the scrimmage went on they got more comfortable,” Lux said.