MANKATO — With his team leading by 14 points and roughly 15 seconds left before halftime, a Mankato West defender scraped the ball loose from Jacob Ginskey’s grasp just when it looked like the Owatonna senior quarterback was about to extend it across the goal line.

After the ball slipped out of Ginskey’s hands and onto the wet grass below, a gang of Scarlet defenders pounced on the swirling pigskin and secured the fumble in the end zone.

And that was it.

Just when it looked liked the Huskies were about to score a pivotal touchdown, the Scarlets were awarded a game-altering touchback. Instead of trailing just 21-14 and charging into halftime having seized full momentum and preparing to take possession to begin the third quarter, Owatonna was forced to mentally regroup, make its requisite adjustments and embark on the final 24-minute trek down by multiple touchdowns against a bona-fide Class 5A juggernaut.

It’s all about perspective.

“You know, would we have scored there and lost 42-14 instead of 42-7, I don’t know,” Owatonna head coach Jeff Williams said of the fumble late in the second quarter that thwarted the Huskies’ drive. “But that was an opportunity to get points against a good football team right before the half. You simply cannot leave points on the field against a team like that. We should have walked into the halftime down 21-14 with the ball and let things play out and see where the chips fell.”

Ultimately, the Scarlets proved too powerful and too explosive, ringing up three unanswered touchdowns in the third quarter en route to a 42-7 victory at Todnem Field on Friday night in a Northstar District crossover game.

The loss snaps the Huskies’ three-game winning streak dead in its tracks and comes just seven days after they scored 42 points of their own against Rochester Century — in the first quarter alone.

Against the Scarlets, Owatonna had no such luck. Though the Huskies moved the ball consistently in the first two quarters, they came away empty-handed on their lone trip to the red zone late in the second quarter and failed to score on their first drive of the game that ended at the West 34 yard line.

Jacob Ginskey left the game early after aggravating a knee injury and finished 8-for-24 (33%) for 168 yards, one touchdown and one fumble. He was sacked three times.

Nolan Ginskey temporarily rejuvenated the Huskies’ sideline with a slick 48-yard catch-and-run touchdown early in the second quarter that pulled Owatonna within 14-7. The star junior receiver ended with a game-high 145 yards and now has 681 yards on the season with at least three games remaining. The school record for receiving yards in a single-season was established by Noah Budach (994) in 2017.

On Friday, the Scarlets’ hulking offensive line gave their already-accurate quarterback, Bart McAnich, plenty of time to scan the field and poke holes in the OHS defense. The senior accounted for four touchdowns (3 passing, 1 rushing), hooking up with future Minnesota Gopher, Jalen Smith, on TD passes of 38 and 49 yards to help build the lead before capping the scoring with a 37-yard dart to junior Mo Staley with 21 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

From there, both teams leaned on their reserves to salt away the final 12 minutes.

“We had a chance to measure ourselves against a really good team tonight and came up short in a lot of areas,” Williams said.

Brennan Sletten led the charge on the ground for the Huskies with a strong 50 yards on just eight carries (6.8 YPC).

“I thought our ability to run block to night was good,” Williams said. “We were able to get edges. (Sletten) was able to cut things up the field and then when we came back inside we were able to get a little bit of a push. That was a positive aspect of the night.”

With the win, the third-ranked Scarlets (5-1) get back on track after suffering a frustrating 21-14 setback to top-ranked Chanhassen in Week 5.

Owatonna, meanwhile, drops to 4-2 with one sectional opponent remaining next against a resurgent Rochester John Marshall (3-3) that defeated rival, Rochester Century, in a thrilling cross-town showdown on Friday night.

Northfield also bounced back after a mini two-game slide and took down New Prague in Week 6, further muddying the waters when it comes to the projected Section 1-5A seeding process.

“I’m not sure where things will stand with (sectional) seeding after a game like this,” Williams said. “Sometimes they hold these types of scores against you, so I just don’t know. But the bottom line is we have to get better. We have to keep exploring personnel decisions and look for ways to improve.”