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Week 3 of the local high school football season sees all three New Ulm teams coming off home wins in the second week of the season.
This week just one team -- the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds -- play at home on Friday when they host Cedar Mountain in a Nine-Man South District, West Subdistrict game.
New Ulm High School heads to Albert Lea for a Southeast District, Red Subdistrict contest, while the Chargers of Minnesota Valley Lutheran travels to Pipestone for a Mid-South District, Brown Subdistrict clash.
All games have 7 p.m. kickoffs
NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (2-0) AT ALBERT LEA (1-1), 7 P.M., FRIDAY, ALBERT LEA
When the New Ulm Eagles defeated Fairmont last Friday in football, it was the first time that New Ulm had beaten the Cardinals in 12 years. Current members of the Eagles football team were between 3 and 5 years old when that last had happened.
And it was the first shutout by a New Ulm High School football team in 23 seasons.
The last shutout happened in 2003 when the Eagles -- coincidentally -- shut out Fairmont 21-0. Prior to that it was 32 seasons ago -- again over Fairmont -- by a score of 6-0.
The Eagles now look to improve to 3-0 when they meet the Tigers.
New Ulm head coach Derek Lieser said that the Tigers -- coached by former Springfield head football coach Paul Dunn -- is a team that runs a triple-option offense.
"Paul has been coaching for a lot of years and their quarterback this year was a backup last year and came in against us (in a 17-14 Tigers win) and is a pretty good athlete, so we need to contain him," Lieser said. "And they have players on both the the offensive and defensive lines that have size, so we feel that our speed and physicality can match up well with them."
Lieser said that the recipe for success Friday is the same as it was for Fairmont.
"We need to take care of the ball on offense and limit mistakes and on defense," he said. "We cannot give up the big pass and [we need to] stop the run as much as possible."
Lieser said that stopping the option comes down to properly reading keys.
"Who has the quarterback, who has the dive man or the pitch man," he said. "So we will watch some of the film from last year and also from this year, so it is a hybrid approach."
Lieser said that last week's shutout of Fairmont was big, but it can be a double-edged sword.
"We want to build off of that momentum and it gives our kids confidence," he said. "But you also want to make sure that kids do not get complacent and stay hungry.
But we need to make sure we do not get away from the things that we did last week. Good is the enemy of great."
Both the Eagles and the Tigers played Austin this season and are coming off comparable wins. New Ulm defeated Austin 40-14 in their first game of the season, while the Tigers downed the Packers 42-6 last week.
"We try to do not do too much score comparing," Lieser said. "Every Friday night can be different and it muddies the waters."
Lieser said that getting the first score is big.
"We want to start fast because football is such a game of momentum," he said. "We want to establish our identity early and be physical, that can set the tone. I know that our kids are hungry for that feeling when you walk off the field after four quarters and are on the right side of the scoreboard."
MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (1-1) AT PIPESTONE (1-1), 7 P.M., FRIDAY, PIPESTONE
The MVL Chargers hope to use the momentum from a 20-14 win over LeSueur-Henderson last week in a road game against the Arrows this Friday.
The Chargers have not beaten Pipestone since 2006 when the downed the Arrows 36-7.
"They have a real nice program there," Chargers head coach Jim Buboltz said. "We have some great history of some great games with them -- they are 1-1 like us and it looks like two evenly-matched teams."
Buboltz said that the Arrows, who defeated Windom 21-7 last week, is a team that likes to run the ball and then use the play-action pass. They have a lot of motion and movement on the offensive side and show good quickness on both sides of the ball.
"They have three guys who run the ball and a quarterback that makes real nice decisions," Buboltz said. "That may be where things can get tricky, so we need to make sure we are playing assignment football for out defense -- they are 50/50 pass and run. … We need to make the right reads on defense."
Buboltz was pleased last week in the way his team moved the ball on offense.
"Our offensive line moved the ball last week consistently and we could have put more points on the board," Buboltz said.
Buboltz is concerned about the long road trip.
"The difference between Week 1 [at Minneota] and Week 2 [at home] was just getting off of the bus," he said. "We were ready to go from the opening kickoff [last Friday]. Our defense had that stand and then when Ben [Riesgraf] hit that big one for 70 yards -- that got us off to the start we needed and we carried that momentum through the night.
"We ran the ball for almost 300 yards (Friday) – Ben, Chase [Tweit] and Andrew [Enter] and Eli [Schauland] did a nice job," Buboltz said. "But I think that Blake Sexton is really asserting himself as a big-time player on both sides of the ball -- he is making remarkable catches. He is a tough cover for anyone."
Buboltz said getting off the bus on the right foot Friday will be a key.
"And we will know that right from the get-go," he said. "If we do that, we can start putting something together now. We need to build off of our win, because we have road games at Pipestone and Windom back-to-back before Jackson and Luverne. These next two game are really big for us to build momentum on."
CEDAR MOUNTAIN (0-2) AT NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (2-0), 7 P.M., FRIDAY, JOHNSON FIELD
New Ulm Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux said that the Cedar Mountain Cougars are a team that wants to use their ground game to set up their air attack.
"Over the years, Cedar Mountain did a lot of throwing and they use a lot of offensive sets that they like to throw out of," he said.
Even though the Cougars come in winless, their first two games were against tough teams in Edgerton and Wabasso.
"And like last year they started out playing those two tough teams," Lux sad. "And then last year in the game against us, it did not go our way (a 36-6 Cedar Mountain win) and I think it was because of the tough teams that they played and this year is no different.
"We know we need to be 100 percent ready because they are going to give us all sorts of looks on offense and get our defensive backs confused. You know that when you play against Cedar Mountain you are playing against athletes that like to run down the field and catch the football."
The Greyhounds come into Friday's Homecoming game hitting on all cylinders on both offense and defense.
Cathedral has scored 47 and 44 points in their first two games and allowed just 6 points.
Alex Portner has rushed for 329 yards and eight touchdowns in those two wins.
Lux said that it is no surprise to people about the success that the Greyhounds have had so far.
"Jesse Nosbush (Greyhounds defensive coordinator) and I have been watching these players since they were freshmen and then up at the different levels, and what we are seeing are things that they expect out of themselves. They are a skilled bunch of players and a lot of them are three-sport athletes.
"We are really working with the offensive line. We really think that from [Andrew] Stern across to Josh Forstner when we are in a two-tight end look that we have a nice, solid offensive line. And the more reps that Lane Ruch gets along with Camden Berg, because we are pulling a lot of guards, that they will get better and better."
Lux also thinks the Greyhounds secondary is playing smart and because of the scores of their games they have been able to play a lot of kids.
"We are getting more and more out of our sophomore class and that helps our depth," Lux said. "Our junior class is the smallest class that we have and Ryler Collins is leading the way there. We are working on our depth the most."