The sixth week of the local high school football schedule has both Minnesota Valley Lutheran and New Ulm Cathedral at home for Friday night and Saturday afternoon games, respectively, with the Eagles of New Ulm High School on the road for a Friday night contest.

The Chargers of MVL will celebrate Homecoming when they host Luverne Friday at 7 p.m. at Johnson Field, with the Eagles heading to Montgomery to face TCU Friday at 7 p.m.

The Greyhounds of New Ulm Cathedral will have a Saturday matinee when they host Mountain Lake Area at 2 p.m. at Johnson Field.

LUVERNE (4-1) AT MVL (0-5), 7 P.M.,

FRIDAY, JOHNSON FIELD

Both teams are coming into this game off of losses last week, with Luverne losing their first game of the season 20-16 in Pipestone, while the Chargers lost to state-ranked Jackson County Central 49-7.

For the third straight week, the Chargers face another tough opponent in the Cardinals of Luverne.

“The score of their loss (20-16) is about what the same score as we lost to Pipestone (28-7),” Chargers head coach Jim Buboltz said. “But historically [Luverne] is a big team that likes to run the ball and their quarterback also likes to sling the ball around a lot.”

The Cardinals are averaging 32 points per game and have only given up an average of 9.6 points a game.

“They resemble Pipestone offensively and they are going to out-size us, but that is about everybody we play right now,” Buboltz said. “So the big thing with us is that we have to take one shot at a time — that has to be our thing — I do not think that we can sit back and think any differently. I think that offensively we are going north and south a lot better than we were a couple of weeks ago.”

Buboltz said he knows that his team cannot turn the ball over against a big team like Luverne.

“And we need to get first downs — move the ball and take time off of the clock,” he said. “We need to shorten the game up like we did against Jackson — we made every possession count.”

Buboltz also feels that his defense has to get off of the field on third downs.

“We have to do a nice job on first and second downs,” he said.

“And we have to take care of the ball — do not give them extra possessions,” Buboltz said.

MVL will get lineman Luke Merseth back from injury for this game.

“It is good to have him back,” Buboltz said. “He is one of our captains and he is ready to play so we will see if we can get him on one side of the ball for sure.”

MOUNTAIN LAKE AREA (0-5) AT NEW ULM CATHEDRAL(2-3), 2 P.M., SATURDAY,

JOHNSON FIELD

The Wolverines from Mountain Lake Area will use two quarterbacks in their offense.

“And it sure looks like they are their main runners,” Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux said. “A lot of times what they will do with the quarterbacks that they have is to put a couple of running backs in the backfield with them and try and run quarterback power.

“They use two players at that spot — they are both good runners and a good halfback that runs well. They are trying to establish the outside edge in their running game.”

Offensively MLA has struggled thus far this season, averaging only 7.6 ppg while they have given up an average of just over 46 ppg.

“Both of their quarterbacks can throw the ball downfield real well and have strong arms, so I think that their coaching staff feels that each of them brings something different to the game,” Lux said. “We have to be prepared for a guy who is coming in with some fresh legs, but they want to run the ball first.”

While the Greyhounds are coming off a 30-20 win last week against Nicollet, Lux felt that both teams put the ball on the ground to much.

“Especially for game five of the season,” he said. “I think that both teams feel that they could have played better — and we had to many penalties. We have playoffs coming up soon so we know that every game with the QRF all of those points are going to make a difference. It is a big game for both teams and good teams want to stay on the plus side of the turnover ratio.”

NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (2-3) AT TRI-CITY UNITED (0-5), FRIDAY,

7 P.M., MONTGOMERY

The Titans of TCU come in averaging just over 11 ppg while giving up 37 ppg.

“In watching film of them over the weekend, they are somewhat like us in their record does not indicate the quality of the team that they have,” New Ulm head coach Derek Lieser said. “They are better than 0-5. They are struggling to find an identity — they have played some good competition in Albert Lea (5-0), St. Peter (4-1), Waseca (4-1). But this is a winnable game for us, we just have to go out and be ready to play in the first half.”

Lieser is hoping that the Eagles come into this game the same way they did last week against Worthington.

“That is up to the captains and the seniors in that they need to be in the right frame of mind,” Lieser said. “We preach all week about building the fundamentals so that we can just go out and do it. The weeks that we have done well, we have had great weeks of practice.”

Lieser thinks that New Ulm needs to establish a ground game right from the start.

“The games that we have done well in are the games where we have been able to establish the run,” he said. “And our run game then opens up our passing game and we saw that last week against Worthington where we established the run and that opened up our play-action pass. Running the ball keeps the clock moving when you want it to. We want to give a lot of different players the ball will be key for us.”

Lieser said that getting quarterback Owen Castleman involved more in the running game is something that he likes.

“It is not by design but we certainly encourage him — if he feels that guys are covered and he sees a lane we want to take advantage of good decision-making which he did last week. Taking care of the ball is very important.”

And Lieser also hopes that the Eagles defense can have an encore performance after last week when they allowed only 6 points.

“Our defensive line established a new line of scrimmage and our linebackers really flew around,” Lieser said. “We need to continue to be physical on defense and give our offense a lot of opportunities — that will continue to be very important.”