By John Raffel
Saginaw Michigan Lutheran Seminary coach Karl Schmugge and his team in last week’s opener beat Lutheran Westland 47-0.
The Cardinals were 7-3 last year and lost in the first round of the playoffs. There were two key graduations.
“Brody Eastin was an all-conference defensive end and tight end who led the team in sacks” Schmugge said. “Jack Vogel was an all-conference CB and had great speed also at wide receiver.
“Max Nordlie (QB/S) is a first-team returning all-conference QB who should have a great season. Hayden Heyn (RB/S) is a first-team returning all-conference runnning back, who is also expected to do well. Cole Broekhuizen is a two-time 1st team all-conference offensive lineman, who also plays defensive, and he will be leading us. Ben Schaaf and Reagan Moore on defense was also first team last year.”
Seminary has eight starters back on defense and seven back on offense, “so we have high expectations,” Schmugge said. “But no one ever won a game by having experience, or looking good on paper. We still need to earn everything that is before us.”
Seminary has 23 seniors. Speed will be a strength.
“We need to work on understanding the importance of every single play,” Schmugge said. There are a number of teams (in the conference) with returning starters, so it should be tough. If you just look at our five-team division, our goal is to be in first, but Nouvel and St. Louis will be right there. St. Charles and Valley will also be improved from last year.”