NEW ULM – Cedar Mountain sophomore quarterback Carson Schiller threw three touchdown passes and the Cougars’ defense forced four New Ulm Cathedral turnovers in the first half as the Cougars defeated the Greyhounds 32-14 on Saturday in a Division 2, nine-man football game. .
Schiller launched an 11-yard toss to Blake Steffl while finding Branndon Pendleton for 66 and 20 yards.
Pendleton scored again on a 20-yard run, with Cooper Freitag adding a 1-yard run.
Jevan Wilfahrt scored on a 1-yard run and added a 12-yard touchdown pass to Rylan Koopmann.
Cedar Mountain, now 6-3, will play Red Rock Central on Friday in Cottonwood for the sectional title.
New Ulm Cathedral sees its season end at 6-3.
“Give credit to Cedar Mountain for capitalizing on our offense in the first half,” New Ulm Cathedral Principal Denny Lux said. “He was able to control the game in the first half.”
Cedar Mountain head coach Dwane Jemmings said his game plan Saturday was shutting down the Greyhounds’ running game.
“When we played them in Week 4 (a 22-19 win over the Greyhounds) we ran 18 plays on offense and scored three times,” he said. “So if we shut down their running game, it’s going to be good. We did that and I haven’t seen our team do that well in a long time.”
Cedar Mountain got down to business on its first possession, going 75 yards on four plays, ending with an 11-yard Schiller-to-Steffl touchdown pass.
The Cougars forced the first of four Cathedral turnovers in the first half when a Greyhounds fumble came out of the end zone for a touchdown.
Five plays later, Schiller hit Pendleton for a 66-yard touchdown.
Cathedral’s second punt return at the end of the first half deep in its own half set off a short four-play, 24-yard drive that Freitag ran from the field for an 18-0 lead with 35 seconds left in the first. quarter.
“We made a statement in the first half,” said Jemmings. “And all year long we’ve been talking about Branndon Pendleton and getting him involved in the game and today when Cathedral did a great job and tackled the runner and knocked the ball out of the end zone. It could have been a 6-6 game. That was one of the biggest changes there.”
Cedar Mountain led the way in the first half when Pendleton ran in from 2 yards out with 28 seconds left to take a 25-0 halftime lead.
Cathedral put together a 13-play, 80-yard drive that ended with Wilfahrt’s one-yard run.
Although it was a scoring drive, it took six minutes to complete.
“Maybe other teams are better built to play football than we are, but we made an effort in the second half,” Lux said.
Schiller’s third touchdown early in the fourth quarter extended the lead to 32-8.
Jemmings said moving Freitag from quarterback to fullback and replacing Schiller has made a difference.
“This has helped a lot,” he said. “We knew Carson was a good player and if we could get him in, he could take advantage. Since we did that our offense is much better.
“This will be two of the last three years that we have been in the final stage. I am proud of this team and our goal is to win the division. “
Jaden Helget rushed for 39 yards on eight carries for Cathedral, while Josh Bentler had 11 carries for 41 yards and Koopman had 13 carries for 57 yards. Logan Mielke had a 2-point conversion catch also for Cathedral.
Joe Gillis led the Greyhounds with 17 tackles, while Jake Finstad, Mielke and Wilfahrt each had eight.