SAVAGE, Minn. — No one kept score, but the Owatonna football team played like winners on Saturday morning at Dan Patch Stadium.

It was simply that type of effort.

“I was pleased with how our guys came to fight today,” said Owatonna head coach Jeff Williams. “It was very encouraging.”

Encouraging, indeed.

In three organized, full-contact scrimmages, the Huskies often looked like the big dogs in the fight. OHS was the only non-Class 6A school of the foursome and will enter the new school year more than 1,000 students smaller than the host of the event, Prior Lake. The other two teams, Eastview and Farmington, hail from high schools with a 9-12 enrollment surpassing 2,000 and stand roughly 500 students larger than OHS

Kicking things off a little after 9 a.m. and proceeding to thoroughly out-play its first two opponents, Owatonna ran into a Prior Lake team that provided a far greater level of resistance than the Tigers and Lightning, its staggering physicality up front and hyper-athletic offensive weapons causing OHS fits. The Lakers opened with a big play through the air and ultimately scored twice against Owatonna’s No. 1 defensive lineup.

“I like that we end things with them,” Williams said of Prior Lake. “They are big and physical. We won’t see anyone as massive as them, but we will see plenty of teams with great size up front, and lining up against a team like (Prior Lake) will help. They reminded us that we still have plenty of things to improve at this point in the season.”

Despite getting burned for a few big plays, Owatonna remained focused and effectively countered the Lakers with three touchdowns of its own, complementing a defense that made a few big plays as well.

Bottom line, aside from a few breakdowns within the defensive secondary and a lack of any sort of offensive production in the ground, it’s going to be extremely difficult for the coaching staff to poke too many holes in how the Huskies executed on Saturday.

Owatonna’s starting defense saw the field for roughly 10 plays apiece against each opponent and did not yield a single first down against Farmington and Eastview. In 19 combined snaps against the Lightning and Tigers the Huskies’ No. 1 unit surrendered no more than 15 total yards, collected three tackles-for-loss and two sacks.

Before Prior Lake’s starting running back wiggled forward for a 3-yard gain in the final session, Owatonna’s starters had allowed no more than two yards on any single rushing attempt all day.

The Huskies’ second and third-team squads also played with a great deal of energy, permitting just two touchdowns and giving up less than 20 total rushing yards against the three opponents.

Though several players contributed up front, incoming junior Zach Dahnert was especially impactful in limited action as a two-way starter on the line. He led the team with two tackles-for-loss and accounted for one of Owatonna’s four sacks on the day.

The 6-foot-2, 245-pound Dahnert is part of an incoming wave of sturdy linemen that will provide the Huskies with a much-needed infusion of raw physicality and overall size that was severally lacking last season.

Owatonna’s starting center (Jack Meneguzzo, 6-0, 255), right guard (Dahnert, 6-2, 245) and right tackle (Grant Lower, 6-4, 280) average roughly 260 pounds apiece. Torrin Smith — who plays defensive end and didn’t play on Saturday as he continues to nurse an offseason knee injury — is a legitimate 235 pounds and posted some head-turning numbers in he weight room this offseason. He should miss no more than two games and there is a chance he could be cleared to play as early as Week 1

“We finally have a little bit of depth on the lines and that’s a huge deal,” Williams admitted last week prior to the scrimmages. “We’ve never really struggled to find enough receivers, and quarterback, and that sort of thing, it about finding those linemen. And I feel better about where we are at up front.”

Though there wasn’t an Owatonna player not eager to take the field on Saturday morning, none were as keen to finally line up against someone other than his own teammates than Jacob Ginskey.

Fresh off a tumultuous, injury-plagued junior season that was bookended by a pair of frustrating early exits against Rochester Mayo, Ginskey’s effort on Saturday was nothing short of dazzling. Though unofficial and approximate, his final numbers (10-for-14, 3 TDs, 0 INTs) provide context to an individual that exuded a level of moxie that he simply didn’t exist last season, or at least not in consistent doses.

“He was very decisive,” Williams said of his third-year starting quarterback. “I was very encouraged by that .”

Beginning the day a crisp 4-for-4 against Farmington — highlighted by a pretty 20-plus yard lob into the outstretched arms of a diving Owen Beyer in the back of the end zone on the third offensive snap of he day — Ginskey added one touchdown apiece against Eastview and Prior Lake. He also threaded the needle through the teeth of the defense and hit Seth Johnson directly between the numbers for a 24-yard score early against the Lightning and ultimately completed his first six passes, connected with seven different receivers surpassed 100 total yards.

“Jacob did a really nice job distributing the ball,” Williams said. “I mean, we had guys running around that weren’t wide, wide open and he threw some darts.

Newcomer Luke Webber — who recently clocked the team’s fastest 40-yard dash during preseason testing and starts the season as essentially the team’s No. 5 pass-catching option — snared two passes against Prior Lake and scored on a 10-yard reception.

Three different players shared starting duties at tailback with Brennan Sletten getting the nod against Eastview and accounting for the team’s only rushing score of the day.

Owatonna has traditionally struggled to gain much traction on the group at its annual scrimmages, and Saturday was no different. The starting unit netted just 10 rushing yards on nine total carries on the day with its longest run spanning five yards.

Projected starting receiver, Nolan Ginskey, sat out the scrimmages with a knee injury. He did not wear a brace and said he hopes to be ready for Week 1, but will learn more after an MRI on Monday.

The incoming junior was one of the highlights at last season’s scrimmages and started his career with a 78-yard touchdown catch-and-run against Rochester Mayo last season, but fractured a bone in his foot against the Spartans and missed he remainder of the season.

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