Week 8 is the final week of the regular season for high school football, with Wednesday night contests.

Week 8 games are important for most teams as results of these games can have a bearing on post-season seedings.

All three local high schools will be on the road for their regular season ending contests.

Minnesota Valley Lutheran will be at Sibley East, with New Ulm Cathedral heading to Edgerton and the Eagles of New Ulm High School on the road at Waseca.

All games have 7 p.m. kickoffs.

MVL (0-7) AT SIBLEY EAST (0-7), 7 P.M., WEDNESDAY, ARLINGTON

One thing is for certain in this match-up — either the Chargers or the Wolverines will get their first win of the season.

And for the first time this season, the Chargers are not facing a team with a winning record.

“They played a nice game against Windom a couple of weeks ago,” Chargers head coach Jim Buboltz said aout the Wolverines who fell 28-20 to Windom. “They almost got their first win of the year — they are a young team that runs a nice double-wing offense with a lot of misdirection. That can cause you to play assignment football and if you are not up to that or get caught looking in the backfield, that can cause you some problems.”

Buboltz believes that his team needs to continue to do what they did last week against Lake Crystal.

“We need to have a good run-pass complimentary offense and defensively we need to control the edge better.

“It would have been nice to jump out to the lead [against Lake Crystal] — we controlled the first quarter and tied the game at 6-6 and we had a lot of nice momentum.”

Buboltz said the Wolverines are similar to Windom offensively.

“We are going to match up size-wise better with them,” he said.

MVL is averaging 9.6 points per game while giving up an average of 31.6 compared to Sibley East, who scores an average of 5.1 ppg and yields 45.1 ppg.

Buboltz said that a win on Wednesday will probably give the Chargers the six seed in Section 3AA.

“The seventh seed will get second-seeded Lake Crystal in the playoffs, while the six seed will play at Pipestone,” Buboltz said.

Buboltz said that heading into the final regular season game and then a road playoff game, he is seeing continued progress in the MVL ground game.

“We ran the ball better,” he said. “Chase [Tweit] had 92 yards in the first half before they centered on him more in the second half, so we threw the ball more and were able to move the ball but not able to maintain long enough drives to get the ball into the end zone. And we did not turn the ball over so that was nice to have a game without a turnover.”

Wednesday games also mean a short practice week for teams.

“You have to find a scheme that they are able to be aggressive enough and you need to work on your blocking schemes,” Buboltz said. “This time of the year we are not showing a lot of new things off of the things that we normally do, so just go with that and try and do it better than them.”

Buboltz said that the Chargers are looking forward to Wednesday’s matchup.

“We are healthy coming out of last week’s game and there were a lot of positive things from last week,” he said. “Our players keep coming back and working hard. A win Wednesday would be huge for us in just confidence alone.

“But in the case of both Lake Crystal and Pipestone’s case we moved the ball on both of them in our games and we competed well — we were tied with both of them right before halftime. We know that we can play with both of those teams, but a win Wednesday would be great for our confidence.”

Buboltz said ultimately the Chargers need to limit turnovers.

“We need to take care of the ball and not give them extra possessions and make sure we do not get caught looking in the backfield for other things with their double-wing offense,” he said.

NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (3-3) AT EDGERTON (4-1), 7 P.M., WEDNESDAY,

EDGERTON

The Greyhounds and the Flying Dutchmen have become familiar opponents on the football field.

“This is the third time that we have played them in three years,” Cathedral head coach Denny Lux said. “We are seeing the same thing offensively — they come out in a Wing-T look and they run some sweep and traps. From the first time we played against them three years ago to now, they still have good-sized linemen and they have a lot of speed in the backfield. And one of their biggest assets offensively is the speed of their halfback and fullback.

“They are a good team and them and Hills-Beaver Creek have been to the top of their section. They have a rich history in their program. You can see that by the number of players they have and their consistency — they are efficient on offense and defense — they play their positions very well.”

Lux feels that his team has made big positive strides in recent games.

“People that have seen us play realized that ever since we got Adrian Henry back, they have seen a different team,” Lux said. “Part of that is because the focus now is not just on Eli [Anderson] or Alex [Portner]. Prior to Adrian coming back Lane [Ruch] would get some carries, but people know that Adrian is a threat in the middle of the field. That has taken the pressure off of Eli and Alex and also our linemen.”

Lux said his team’s defense has improved as his youth has gained experience with a lot of juniors playing early in the season.

The Greyhounds’ defense is holding opponents to 18.3 ppg.

“Our defensive coach Jesse Nosbush would say the same thing in that our defensive players have matured in their positions,” Lux said.

Lux said that the short week of practice is something that each team in Minnesota has to go through.

“But by now it is more recognition more than anything,” Lux said. “We have all had enough skill work so that you can afford a game on a short week.”

As far as the playoffs go, right now QRF has the Greyhounds as the fourth seed in Section 2, Nine-Man and would probably host Renville County West .

“We know that we have a home (playoff) game and that has been our goal since mid-season,” Lux, who feels that his team has not played their best game yet this season, said. “There are times when I break down game films there are still times when we are blocking the wrong person or double-teaming the wrong guy. And defensively we have escaped some situations, so there is still room for improvement on our part, but that is what every coach and player wants to have … And having that home playoff game is big for your fans and your senior players.”

NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (2-5) AT WASECA (7-0) 7 P.M., WEDNESDAY, WASECA HIGH SCHOOL

The Eagles face the unbeaten Bluejays Wednesday, and Waseca is a team that boasts a stingy defense that is holding opponents to an average of just under 8 points per game and is scoring just over 30 points per contest.

“Brad [Wendland, Waseca head football coach[ seems to have a physical and fast team every year,” New Ulm head football coach Derek Lieser said. “It has been a couple of years since we have played them and they are running a little bit different offense than they have in the past but they are still the super physical, super fast team.”

Lieser said the Bluejays’ offense has trended this season to more of a passing offense than they have in the past.

“They used to be more power-counter and now they are much more relient on throwing the ball down the field vertically and also trying to get the ball to their playmakers on the edge, which is an extension of their running game. They are more pass-happy and more of a spread offense.

“We have to make sure that we can limit their explosive plays in their air game — we have to make sure that we can do that.”

Lieser said that defensively the Eagles may try and bracket their best receiver.

“Maybe we can pick and chose when we want to do that and give them some different coverage looks,” he said. “We want to pressure their quarterback — he is only a sophomore — so we want to dial up some pressures.”

On offense, Lieser said the Eagles want to attack their aggressive defense.

“We were able to run the ball last week against St. Peter, but we need to marry that to our pass game,” he said.

The Eagles come in at 2-5, but Lieser feels that his tea could be better.

“We could be 4-3 or 5-2,” he said. “Unfortunately we have not played our best football yet. The one thing I feel is that we can be a very scary six seed in our [Section 2AAAA]. If we show up on our Tuesday [Oct. 21] playoff game and play our best football — which we have not done all year — we can be a tough out. Our goal is to keep getting better and our offensive system. We can be a team that can be a tough out.”

One of the losses by New Ulm came in a close 28-22 loss to TCU.

“We can be a team like TCU that beat Fairmont 35-7 last week,” Lieser said. “Our goal is to keep climbing the mountain and get better and put ourselves in a position to play our best football come playoff time. Our best football is yet to come.”

Lieser feels that New Ulm will probably be at either Willmar or St. Peter in the Section 2AAAA playoffs next Tuesday.