Staff photo by Travis Rosenau
New Ulm quarterback Preston Holberg (4) makes several Tri-City United defenders miss on his way to a touchdown run during a Homecoming prep football game at New Ulm High School on Friday night.

NEW ULM — The New Ulm Eagles used a dominating ground game to break a three-game losing streak to Tri-City United with a 21-7 Homecoming prep football win over the Titans Friday night at New Ulm High School.

Zach Hubbard scored twice for the Eagles on runs of 1 and 50 yards, while New Ulm quarterback Preston Holberg scored on a 25-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

Holberg ended up leaving the game with an upper-body injury during New Ulm’s second scoring drive in the second quarter after an 8-yard run.

“I was really proud of the way our kids battled tonight,” New Ulm head coach Derek Lieser said as his team improved to 3-0 on the season. “They have had our number over the years — they are a physical team, so I am proud of the way we played for 48 minutes.”

But it was the way that the Eagles dominated the first half that told the story of the game.

New Ulm ran 34 offensive plays in that first half to just 13 for the Titans.

For the game, the Eagles ran 57 offensive plays compared to 35 for TCU.

“We talked about how we wanted to own the line of scrimmage,” Lieser said. “They had some size so we wanted to take advantage of our quickness. That was the key part of us taking care of things in the first half. When you are on offense and controlling the ball, that is demoralizing defensively to the other team.”

The Eagles, who play at Worthington next Friday, got on the board late in the first quarter when Holberg guided them 49 yards on nine plays.

Holberg and Isaac Friese did the bulk of the work in the scoring drive that was hampered by a false start and a holding penalty on consecutive plays by New Ulm.

But on a first down from the Titans 25-yard line, Holberg danced through TCU defenders for a 25-yard touchdown run at the 2:23 mark. Sam Ibberson’s extra point made it 7-0.

After the Eagles’ defense force a three-and-out for the TCU offense, New Ulm pieced together an 80-yard, 15-play scoring drive.

A 19-yard run from Friese and a 10-yard run from Holberg moved the ball near midfield. But on a second-down run from the Titans 40-yard line, Holberg fell hard on his shoulder and was taken to the locker room.

“He was not able to finish the game,” Lieser said about the senior quarterback. “Our kids were disappointed because of the fact that Preston is a captain, a three-year starter and a leader for this team, and he is well-respected and liked. Our guys wanted to rally around that.”

Freshman Noah Mertz took over and led the Eagles on the final eight plays of the drive that ended on a Zach Hubbard 1-yard run for a 14-0 halftime lead following Ibberson’s extra point kick.

“Noah did a nice job on offense of managing at quarterback,” Lieser said. “And George Gag did a nice job replacing Preston at safety.”

TCU’s only points of the game came off of a New Ulm turnover when Dylan Fink recovered an Eagles turnover deep in New Ulm territory, with Fink completing the short 16-yard drive on two plays with an 11-yard run.

New Ulm would salt the game away early in the fourth quarter when Hubbard broke away on a 50-yard run off of the wildcat for a touchdown for a 21-7 lead with just under six minutes to go in the game.

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back with the way our defense was playing,” Lieser said. “Zach had a nice game as did Isaac Friese — our offensive line created holes left and right. And our backs hit the hole hard tonight.”

Lieser said tha the offensive line will have to be depended on now with Holberg’s status. “Our quarterback coming in now may not be as elusive, so we are going to have to step up in all areas of our game.”