After a scoreless first half, Martin County West's Christian Bachenberg threw two third-quarter touchdown passes and then intercepted a pass and returned a fumble for another TD in the fourth as the Mavericks moved their record to 5-0 with a 20-0 Southwest-East District football win over New Ulm Cathedral Saturday in Sherburn.
Bachenberg threw a 25-yard TD pass to Carver Rohman and a 17-yard scoring strike to Zach Anderson in the third quarter.
The Mavericks sealed the win in the fourth quarter when Bachenberg picked up a Greyhound fumble and returned it 27 yards for a score.
"We didn't really come to play the first half," Bachenberg said. "We punched them back in the second half though and then kept going and got the 'W.'"
On the TD throw to Rohman, Bachenberg said, "That was open twice and didn't get it, but I saw it open again and threw it."
About the scoring pass to Anderson:
"Zach was really open on the post and I just threw it there on the post. We can pass, too. We have some good running backs but we can throw the ball."
Bachenberg was 8-for-17 passing for 141 yards and the two touchdowns. He ran the ball seven times for 36 yards.
"Bachy's kind of the captain of the ship," said MCW coach Tom Elliott. "When the field and weather conditions straightened out he threw some good balls. He missed a couple of touchdown throws but all in all he did a real good job orchestrating things and we're hoping he can continue that in the next couple of weeks."
Elliott said some different looks than expected from the Greyhounds played into the sluggish first half.
"They came out did some different things that what we were preparing for," he said. "For some reason it threw our kids for a loop. It's not the first four-front we've ever seen but we were able to talk it out at halftime and then came out in the second half and started executing the way we know we can."
Martin County West had 327 yards offense, 186 rushing and 141 passing.
"We kind of wanted to throw the ball this game," Elliott said. "We saw some matchups we thought we could exploit, but the first half weather conditions didn't work in our favor. It cleared up in the second half so the ball was more dry and we could be a little more aggressive offensively."
Rylan Cutler led MCW in rushing with 120 yards on 23 carries.
Rohman caught three passes for 57 yards and Anderson had three catches for 50 yards.
The Mavericks limited Cathedral to 174 yards, 125 rushing and 49 passing.
"The defense played very well," Elliott commented. "We had some poor tackling in the first half but we were able to rally and keep them out of the end zone. The conditions played into that as well. The footing was suspect and they were able to get loose out of our grasp but in the second half we got better footing and we were able to keep the goose egg on the board."
MCW travels to Slayton to face Murray County Central on Friday. The Rebels are also 5-0 after beating Sleepy Eye 41-0 on Friday.
Section 3A
MCW is a member of Section 3A for postseason play. Here's this week's results for section teams. Records are in parenthesis.
Adrian/Ellsworth (1-4): Lost to Minnesota Valley Lutheran 16-15
Martin County West (5-0): Defeated New Ulm Cathedral 20-0
Murray County Central (5-0): Defeated Sleepy Eye 41-0
Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (3-2): Lost to Minneota 31-0
Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (3-2): Beat Wabasso 41-6
Sleepy Eye (1-4): Lost to Murray County Central 41-0
Springfield (4-1): Beat St. James Area 44-6
Wabasso (0-5): Lost to Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 41-6
MCW football schedule
Fri., Sept. 3 - at St. James Area, W 47-13
Fri., Sept. 10 - Sleepy Eye, W 22-14
Sat., Sept. 18 - Minnesota Valley Lutheran, W 34-16
Fri., Sept. 24 - at Adrian/Ellsworth, W 22-7
Sat., Oct. 2 - New Ulm Cathedral, W 20-0
Fri., Oct. 8 - at Murray County Central, 7 p.m.
Thurs., Oct. 14 - Springfield, 7 p.m.
Wed., Oct. 20 - at Tracy-Milroy-Balaton, 7 p.m.