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The seventh week of the local high school football season means it is a short week for games because of MEA Week with games on Wednesday.
Minnesota Valley Lutheran is the lone school at home when they host Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial at 7 p.m. at Johnson Field.
New Ulm High School heads to St. Peter while New Ulm Cathedral is at Renville County West with 7 p.m. kickoffs.
LAKE CRYSTAL WELLCOME MEMORIAL (5-1) AT MINNESOTA VALLEY LUTHERAN (3-3), WEDNESDAY, 7 P.M., JOHNSON FIELD
It is another tough matchup for the Chargers, who host a Knights team that is averaging 36 points per game and has allowed an average of 6.3 points per game -- the best defense in Section 3AA.
"They have three shutouts on the defensive side and played Jackson [County Central] really tough in their opener [a 25-0 loss] and now have won five straight games," Chargers head football coach Jim Bubolz said. "They do a lot of nice things offensively as far as pulling guys and motion so they are real dangerous that way.
"It makes it difficult to cover -- we are going to have to read pulling guards and defensively they have two big defensive tackles (Kellen Grunig, 6-foot-1, 250 pounds and Keegan Grunig 243 pounds) really try and control the front and leave it to the others to clean up."
Buboltz said that Lake Crystal does not resemble Jackson County offensively.
"Jackson is more of a power football team while [Lake Crystal] tries to attack the edges more -- off tackle to the sideline -- so it is important for us to get that defended better. They are about 60-40, so they like to throw the ball to because of their good running game.
"They like to get receivers down the field and their quarterback [Brody Herbst] is doing a nice job of that. They have a nice offense and they are playing with a lot of confidence."
Buboltz is hoping to build offensively on what they did last week against Luverne.
"We were able to go run-pass a little bit better," he said. "Especially in early downs so we were not putting ourselves behind the sticks a lot and having second and third downs more attainable.
"It sounds odd that in Week 7 that you are still growing offensively and learning more of what you can do. I thought that last week against a real big Luverne team we did more of that."
Buboltz said that his team can play better than they did last week,
"We gave up two touchdowns on turnovers," he said.
Being a short week, Buboltz thinks that he needs to work on what he wants to do instead of what Lake Crystal wants to do.
"We want to work on our stuff and not to try and get into too much of what they are doing," he said. "But we cannot turn the ball over."
The three losses by MVL this season have come to teams with a combined record of 18-0.
NEW ULM HIGH SCHOOL (4-2) AT ST. PETER (3-3), WEDNESDAY, 7 P.M., ST. PETER HIGH SCHOOL
The Eagles look to rebound Wednesday from a last-second loss last week to Tri-City United against the Saints on Wednesday in a Southeast Central District, Red Subdistrict game.
"Anytime you are playing your geographic rival, it is a big game," New Ulm head coach Derek Lieser said. "It is a short week to try and get prepared and at this time of the year on a two-day practice you are not able to change a ton of what you are doing.
"This is a big game with section implications as far as do we end up as the five or six [seed]. Big game to try and get momentum back after last week."
The Saints are a 50-50 run/pass team, Lieser said.
"They have an athletic quarterback in Alex Korir, who is a third-year starter and is a good passer and is shifty, and they have a running back in Ryan Moelter, who is a big, bruising back who will try and run through you," Lieser said. "And they do a lot of unorthodox things -- they will have quad sets and have done five receivers to one side. They are looking for ways to get their best athletes the ball."
The Saints are coming off a 25-13 win over Albert Lea, a team the Eagles fell to in Week 3 by a score of 26-22. The Saints are averaging 27.8 ppg and allowing 21.8 ppg.
Lieser said that he wants to see his team take advantage of opportunities when they get them.
"We have to make the plays and capitalize on opportunities when we get them -- seize opportunities when they come -- because you only get opportunities once or twice -- because last week we left plays on the field."
NEW ULM CATHEDRAL (5-1) AT RENVILLE COUNTY WEST (3-3), WEDNESDAY, 7 P.M., DANUBE
New Ulm Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux said that the RCW Jaguars have a very good quarterback in Hampton Hebrink.
"They do a lot of things around him as far as the running game and they also run the option," he said. "They will also run some veer and quarterback power with him. And he has a strong arm.
"They are a little bit like Wabasso where they like to throw the ball deep down the sidelines. It will be a test for us defensively -- I do not know if there is one part of their game but they just have a lot of experience with the offense that they are running."
Lux said that his defense under Jesse Nosbush has been doing well this season, allowing an average of just 7.8 points per game.
"We have been tested by a number of teams and we are going to have to be at the top of our game on Wednesday," Lux said.
Offensively the Greyhounds are averaging 42.8 points per game.
"We had a nice game Friday at Mountain Lake and we were able to get a lot of our backups in for half of the game," Lux said. "Wednesday we need to control the line of scrimmage and do not let them get to many offensive plays."
RCW is averaging 19.2 ppg and allowing 25.5 ppg this season.