Friday’s Minnesota Valley Lutheran-Luverne football game was one where you can honestly say that the game was closer than the score.

Luverne’s 28-6 win over the Chargers really came down to that second quarter where the Chargers controlled the ground game and the clock for almost 10 of the 12 minutes in the quarter but failed to produce from the red zone.

The Chargers, who ran only nine offensive plays in the first quarter compared to 22 for the Cardinals (and a 14-0 deficit to Luverne who scored on their first two possessions) ate up yardage on that second quarter drive behind the running of Chase Tweit. Tweit ended up with 102 yards on 23 carries for the game. He carried the ball nine times in that almost 10-minute drive.

Twice the Chargers converted on fourth-down plays behind the running of Tweit.

And it was a drive where the Chargers used the play clock to their advantage, waiting until the last second to snap the ball.

“We were trying to keep their offense off of the field,” Chargers head coach Jim Buboltz said. “We had the ball over nine minutes on that drive — and it is just too bad it did not end in points.”

That scoring drive ended when Chargers quarterback Eli Schauland’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete.

The Cardinals’ first score of the game came off of an interception in Chargers territory and ended in a touchdown seven plays later.

Their third score of the first half came after the Chargers’ drive stalled after that 18-play drive and came off of 90-yard drive that took just over a minute for a 21-0 halftime lead for the Cardinals.

But take away the interception that eventually resulted in a Luverne touchdown, the stalled drive that MVL did not score on and the 90-yard scoring drive for Luverne — that is a 21-point swing in the game.

And after the first quarter of seeing Luverne run 13 more offensive plays than the Chargers, MVL ran 53 offensive plays in the game to 52 for Luverne.

Buboltz felt that at times his defense played well Friday.

“But that group also feels that they can be stingier on first downs,” Buboltz said. “We got better [Friday night]. We just need to finish.”

EAGLES LOSE

LATE AGAIN

New Ulm High School head football coach Derek Lieser said that Friday’s 28-22 road loss at Tri-City United was a case of again losing a game late.

“We are a play or two away for the third time this season from winning,” he said. “And it is starting to sound like a broken record, but it goes to show that we are right there — we just have to have that finishing touch.”

The Eagles had the ball inside the TCU 4-yard line late in the game thanks to a deep pass from quarterback Owen Castleman to Zach Hubbard.

“On first-and-goal, one of our offensive linemen stepped on Owen’s foot when he was handing the ball off,” New Ulm coach Derek Lieser said.” “That caused a bobble in the backfield and (TCU) recovered it.

“You see that happen at the NFL level, but unfortunately we found a new way to not be able to finish.”

Lieser felt that the Eagles’ passing offense took some nice steps forward.

“Defensively we did OK,” he said. “We gave up one big play in the run game that I was disappointed with. And TCU was better than an 0-5 team. But again one play here or there on offense or defense in the game matters for us in the game — we are one or two plays away and you only get one opportunity a week, so when you let one slip through your fingers as we have now for the third time this year, it is not a fun feeling.

“Winning at the varsity level is hard and it is hard to do that when you are young. Especially when we are playing as many sophomore and juniors as we are — they are learning and this will help us move forward as a program and learn through the losses. And you only lose if you do not learn from that and take the mistakes that we are making learning opportunities.”

FOOTBALL MORE THAN A GAME

Normally after a game, head football coaches will talk to their players after a game to talk about their play.

But Saturday afternoon after a 44-6 win over Mountain Lake Area, New Ulm Cathedral head coach Denny Lux chose instead to talk to the players and coaches from Mountain Lake.

“Everybody who was at this game today has got to be very proud of Mountain Lake,” Lux said. “Because a lot of schools with those few of players (19 on varsity roster) who have to play some freshmen — probably four or five — would have never played this game. A lot of schools would have forfeited. But the Mountain Lake school, administrators and coaches and of course Tim Kirk (and current head coach Isaac Hildebrandt) have too much pride in football for those players not to play and keep their season going.”

Kirk, a former head football coach for the Wolverines, is dealing with Stage 4 cancer.

“Mountain Lake wants to finish off their season,” added Lux. “They have two tough games left, but they need to know that we respect them and they need to know that we have to have each other — teams have to have each other. So when teams are playing each other they have to show respect. They have to understand that we cannot do this thing alone. Coach Hildebrandt and his staff did a wonderful job coaching the game. It was a good football game and both teams walked away today with respect for each other. That is the word and I just wanted the Mountain Lake players to keep their heads up knowing that two or three years from now it will switch — they have too much history in their (football) program. It will switch because they were here [Saturday] playing hard in this game and it mattered to them. That is what it is about.”