The Greyhounds got four touchdown runs from Alex Portner and three takeaways to down the Renville County West Jaguars 35-12 in a Nine-Man South District, West Subdistrict football game Friday night at Johnson Field.

Portner’s TD runs went for 8, 34, 17 and 20 yards.

He finished the game with 22 carries for 180 yards, while Adrian Henry had 13 carries for 100 yards and a touchdown.

The Cathedral defense was led by Evan Blekestad’s 20 tackles, while Camden Berg was in on 18 tackles and had a strip sack. Also for the Cathedral defense, Ike Kirschstein added 12 tackles and a sack while recovering a fumble.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Alex Portner runs to the left side of the field for a big gain during Friday night’s nine-man football game against RCW at Johnson Field.

“We’re just really focusing on trying not to give up the big play,” Cathedral defensive coordinator Jesse Nosbush said. “We know that teams are going to get some yards, it’s hard to stop everybody every time, but if you can limit the big plays that are happening, you give yourself a good chance, especially when you’re scoring like we’ve been.”

The Jaguars got the opening kickoff but didn’t get far with it as the Greyhounds got a forced fumble and recovery by Lane Ruch on it, setting the Greyhounds up at their own 42. The Greyhounds got down to the 20 but stalled out and turned it over on downs.

Not about to let that set them back, the Greyhounds got a stand of their own on defense and forced the Jaguars to turn it over on downs when Kirschstein got a sack on fourth down. The Greyhounds took their next drive down the field with a few runs and a catch by Ruch for 8 yards, finding the end zone on an 8-yard TD run by Portner. The 2-point conversion throw from quarterback Eli Anderson was complete to Josh Forstner and the Greyhounds led 8-0 with 9:15 left in the half.

RCW’s next drive ended with a strip sack by Berg, which was recovered by Kirschstein at the RCW 49. The Greyhounds then needed just an 8-yard scamper by Anderson and a 7-yard run by Portner to set up a 34-yard TD run by Portner, who joked a defender on the left side of the field and cut back to dash into the end zone for a 14-0 lead with 3:34 left in the half.

The Jaguars moved the ball before the half with a couple of pass completions from quarterback Hampton Hebrink, with his third throw completion of the drive going to 6-foot-3 target Jonathan Driggs for 6 points on fourth-and-goal.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Henry Forst (68) tries to shed a block by Renville County West’s Carlos Galvez (22) during Friday night’s nine-man football game at Johnson Field.

The Greyhounds got a nice run from Portner before the half to get the ball to midfield but after burning a timeout, Anderson was picked off on a deep throw by Hebrink to end the half up 14-6.

The Greyhounds continued to take it to the ground to open the second half and were able to get Portner’s third TD run of the game on a 17-yarder to the outside for a 20-6 lead with 6:25 left in the third quarter. After forcing RCW to punt on its next drive, the Greyhounds were set up in good position after a 12-yard run down the sideline by Anderson and a late-hit, out-of-bounds penalty on the Jaguars. Portner took a pitch to the right side moments later for a 20-yard TD run to make it a 26-6 game. The 2-point conversion catch by Forstner was good, making it 28-6.

“The linemen that we have do a really good job of getting off the ball, getting into the defenders,” Nosbush said. “Then we have Adrian in the backfield, who’s had some success now, and we still have Lane back there, who’s a huge blocking back. Our quarterback can run a little bit, so it’s nice to have that four-headed attack that we could throw and it’s tough to focus on one thing.

“But Alex has been a super patient runner. He does a really good job of letting his blockers get out in front and then using their blocks and setting guys up. And he’s a strong guy, you can see it in his runs. It seems like he’s going to get tackled for a 2-yard loss and then he’ll take off for 15 down the sideline.”

RCW got its final score in the fourth on a 6-yard TD run by Jacob Savig, which the Greyhounds answered after three consecutive runs by Henry, the last being a 1-yard push up the middle for a 35-12 lead after a PAT kick by Andrew Stern.

Carter Zinniel’s interception on a deep pass by Hebrink late in the game allowed the Greyhounds to take over and kneel out the rest of the clock.

Despite the blowout win, the Jaguars had some size and were far from pushovers.

“In practice we really focus on getting a bunch of bodies on the ball, so that really makes a difference in games where you can get three, four guys coming to the running back, especially when it’s a big guy like they had,” Nosbush said. “As long as you can keep throwing more bodies at people, the more you have, the better off you are.

The Greyhounds (4-3) are at Edgerton for a 7 p.m. regular season finale on Wednesday, while RCW (2-5) is at Mountain Lake to end the regular season Wednesday night.