File photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral running back Alex Portner (12) runs the ball while being pursued by Red Rock Central’s Carter Therkilsen (28) during a nine-man football game on Aug. 28 at Johnson Field in New Ulm. Also pictured is Cathedral’s Andrew Stern (82).

NEW ULM — It will be a rematch of the first week of the regular season when the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds meet the Red Rock Central Falcons on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Lamberton in a Section 2, Nine-Man Semifinals game.

In their first meeting back on Aug. 28 in New Ulm, the Falcons downed Cathedral 28-6.

But since that meeting, both Red Rock Central and Cathedral have changed.

“This is the first time that I have seen them on film since we played them,” Cathedral head coach Denny Lux said. “Coach [Isaac] Jenniges has opened up their play book a little bit. He has a few different offensive sets that he is using — he is spreading out the defensive fronts with some double wing and letting his quarterback and running backs pick and chose what lane they are going to run in.

“They have gone to more of a spread set which you typically see with some pulling on the backs’ side. They are a senior-dominated team and are playing with a lot of confidence.”

While the Falcons have changed, so have the Greyhounds from that first meeting.

“We are a different team, too,” Lux said. “We have gained some confidence and we have found players who have filled their roles as far as positions on offense and defense.

“Those are the things that we want to take into this game– we know that we are going to have to play real well and stay confident as a team.”

RRC is a team that brings a balanced attack to the field.

“The first time we played them it was pretty much the running game on their part,” Lux said. “But I am sure coach Jenniges is thinking that he has a team that can go deep in the playoffs, so he started to do more throwing in the last two or three games of the regular season.”

Lux said that defensively, they know that they have a very good running back to try and stop in Carter Therkilsen, who has 1,924 yards rushing on the year.

“[Defensive coordinator Jesse Nosbush] knows that he needs to get players from the defensive line that can slow him down, because when he comes through the hole with his speed he is tough to bring down,” Lux said. “Jesse will look at some films from other teams that have played Red Rock strong defensively for ideas.”

Offensively, Lux said the Greyhounds need to spread out the Falcons defense.

“In our game [Tuesday] with Renville County West, they ended up playing an eight man front against our Power I — they were in a 4-4 with a deep safety — and if Red Rock plays that kind of defense we are going to get out-manned.

“So we need to look at some things that we have in our playbook that we were potentially going to use earlier in the season. Then about midseason we got this Power-I look and it has been successful.”

Lux added that his team can’t just rely on the Power-I offense either, though.

In that first meeting, Cathedral did not have running back Adrian Henry who was still recovering from a knee injury.

“He is a hard runner,” Lux said about Henry. “He is hard to bring down, so it might be a situation where him and Alex [Portner] can share some of the carries in more of a spread-type offense. In the Renville County West game, Alex had 27 carries and physically he can do that — not a problem — but with some of the linebackers that Red Rock has it is nice to have a few more pounds on your running back as they go through that hole.”

In that playoff win over RCW, Portner passed 1,000 yards rushing on the season and now sits at 1,094 yards for the year.

Lux added that there will be more responsibility put on Cathedral quarterback Eli Anderson in this game, Lux said.

“I can tell on film that we are going to have to get our receivers open and he is going to have to hit them with passes quickly because Red Rock plays a good zone defense and they close off those areas pretty fast,” Lux said.

Lux said that one of the keys Saturday is to not turn the ball over.

“We cannot give them a short field,” he said. “And we have to come out and play with confidence — take all of the best parts of our regular season and take it into this game.”