Eagles fall to late Titans comeback
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm quarterback Owen Castleman (19) stiff-arms Tri-City United’s Kellen Jirik during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game on Friday night at New Ulm High School’s Eagles Stadium.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Eagles senior offensive lineman Lincoln Haime (65) blocks Tri-City United’s Ethan Holicky (85) during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game Friday night at New Ulm High School’s Eagles Stadium.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Jayden Broste (6) runs down the field after a catch during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game against Tri-City United on Friday night at New Ulm High School’s Eagles Stadium.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm quarterback Owen Castleman (19) stiff-arms Tri-City United’s Kellen Jirik during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game on Friday night at New Ulm High School’s Eagles Stadium.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Eagles senior offensive lineman Lincoln Haime (65) blocks Tri-City United’s Ethan Holicky (85) during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game Friday night at New Ulm High School’s Eagles Stadium.
Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm’s Jayden Broste (6) runs down the field after a catch during a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game against Tri-City United on Friday night at New Ulm High School’s Eagles Stadium.
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NEW ULM -- Tri-City United scored two touchdowns in the last 1:39 of Friday night's Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict football game, with the second score coming after the only New Ulm turnover of the game, to drop the Eagles 21-14 at Eagles Stadium.
Eagles quarterback Owen Castleman ran for a 1-yard touchdown in the first quarter and also threw for a 10-yard touchdown pass to his brother, Miles Castleman, in the fourth quarter.
"I was proud of the kids' effort -- it was a 48-minute battle against a really good football team," New Ulm head football coach Derek Lieser said. "I just felt like we did not make enough plays tonight. We had our chances throughout the game -- felt good about our game plan and our kids executing for the most part. But we made just one too many mistakes."
The Eagles, who travel to St. Peter Wednesday because of MEA Week, took a 6-0 lead on their first drive of the game after the New Ulm defense forced a three-and-out on TCU's first possession.
New Ulm mounted a 68-yard, 10-play drive that ended when Owen Castleman capped the drive with a one yard.
Castleman used pass completions of 33 yards and 20 yards to Jayden Broste and also added a 12-yard run in a drive that took just over five minutes.
"We anticipated that they were going to be really heavy to stop the run and we felt like we could take advantage of their cover zero," Lieser said. "We were able to move the ball."
That ended up being the only points of the first half for either club.
But TCU used a big play to take a 7-6 lead on the Eagles when Ty Smith turned a second-and-9 into a 56-yard touchdown run at the 8:15 mark of the third quarter.
New Ulm regained the lead midway through the final quarter when Owen Castleman engineered a 75-yard, seven-play scoring drive.
Castleman found Brody Powers for a 30-yard gain and then hooked up with Parker Ranweiler for a 25-yard completion.
An 11-yard completion to Powers set up a 10-yard scoring strike to brother Miles Castleman and a 14-7 lead following a 2-point conversion pass from Owen Drill to Miles Castleman.
But with just over two minutes to go in the game, TCU struck back on a 38-yard halfback pass from Parker O'Malley to Brody Factor that went down to the 9-yard line. From there, O'Malley ran it in from nine yards out to tie the game at 14-14 with 1:39 left in the game.
The Eagles took ensuing kickoff on their own 5-yard line.
There, disaster struck when Owen Castleman was pressured and had his pass intercepted by Toren Kelly on the New Ulm 11-yard line with 1:20 left in the game.
It was New Ulm's only turnover of the game.
And with 11 seconds left in the game, O'Malley scored from 8 yards out on a run for the 21-14 win.
"Hindsight being 20/20 you have that debate of, 'Do you run the ball and force them to use their timeouts?'" Lieser said, "We felt good about our passing game in the second half, but unfortunately we made a mistake there -- we put our defense in a really tough spot."