Eagles shut down Cardinals
Photo by Brady Dennis New Ulm’s Carter Hanson (13) and Brayden Williamson (7) signal touchdown after the Eagles scored against Fairmont during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game Friday night at New Ulm High School.
Photo by Brady Dennis New Ulm’s Parker Ranweiler runs for a touchdown during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game against Fairmont on Friday at New Ulm High School.
Photo by Brady Dennis Members of the New Ulm Eagles surround Parker Ranweiler after he scored a touchdown during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game against Fairmont.
Photo by Brady Dennis New Ulm’s Carter Hanson (13) and Brayden Williamson (7) signal touchdown after the Eagles scored against Fairmont during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game Friday night at New Ulm High School.
Photo by Brady Dennis New Ulm’s Parker Ranweiler runs for a touchdown during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game against Fairmont on Friday at New Ulm High School.
Photo by Brady Dennis Members of the New Ulm Eagles surround Parker Ranweiler after he scored a touchdown during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game against Fairmont.
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NEW ULM -- Owen Castleman ran for two touchdowns and passed for another and Parker Ranweiler scored on a 10-yard run as the New Ulm Eagles shut out Fairmont 30-0 Friday night at Eagles Field in a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict game.
It was New Ulm's first win against the Cardinals in football since 2014.
Castleman ran for two scores of 1 yard each and added a 32-yard touchdown pass to Jayden Broste.
The Eagles defense also added a safety as New Ulm totally dominated the game allowing Fairmont just six first downs. And the Eagles special teams provided a blocked punt that led to their second touchdown.
"Fairmont is a good squad and we talked [in practice] early in the week about how this would be a good measuring stick for us," New Ulm coach Derek Lieser said. "I think that maybe we caught them on an off night, but I thought that our kids played extremely hard. They limited mistakes and executed all of the phases of the game. We played our best complete football game in my five years as head coach."
The Eagles, who next play Friday at Albert Lea, got on the board on their second offensive possession of the game when Castleman engineered an eight-play, 62-yard drive. A 12-yard pass from Castleman to Ranweiler started the 4:49 minute drive. Ranweiler had runs of 8, 15 and 2 yards. A 10-yard run from Jeffrey Kral and a 2-yard run from Hunter Heil had the ball on the 1-yard line. A Castleman 1-yard run and a Kaden Stueber extra point kick had New Ulm ahead 7-0.
The Eagles' second score came when Isaiah Friese blocked a punt and Broste recovered it at the Fairmont 20-yard line.
Three plays later, Ranweiler barreled in from 10 yards out for a 14-0 lead.
"We talked to the kids about that -- and it is a made-up stat -- that 90 percent of the teams that block a punt usually win the game," Lieser said. "That blocked punt was huge for us -- the wind played a factor in that too in that they had to go into the wind. That really set the tone -- our special teams performed admirably."
The Eagles defense forced a three-and-out after the score before a Fairmont 13-yard punt gave New Ulm the ball on the Cardinals 35-yard line.
On a fourth-and-3, Castleman found Broste for a 32-yard scoring pass and a 21-0 lead going into halftime.
Jeffrey Kral's 64-yard run to start the fourth quarter set the stage for Castleman's second 1-yard run just two minutes into the final quarter.
Lieser said that Castleman, Ranweiler, Kral and Heil spearheaded the Eagles offense.
"Jeff [Kral] did not get a ton of touches in the first half but had that big run," Lieser said. "Parker ran extremely hard [and had a fumble recovery] and Owen did a great job commanding the troops. We have a lot of guys who we can hand the ball too."
New Ulm capped off the game with 3:30 left in the game with a safety.
"I am really happy for the kids because you do not get to beat Fairmont every year," Lieser said. "In my coaching career, I do not know how many shutouts I have been a part of."