Having gained steam over the previous two weeks, the Owatonna football team seems to have picked the perfect time to get its running game on track

Because they certainly needed it on Friday night.

Taking the field against Rochester John Marshall with a sideways rain sweeping across the stadium and a relentless cell of precipitation having thoroughly soaked the turf over the previous 20 hours, the Huskies leaned on their running attack early and progressively wore down the Rockets in a 32-14 Northstar District South-Maroon victory on Friday night.

Brennan Sletten rang up his second 100-plus-yard rushing effort in the last three weeks and spearheaded the Huskies’ ground attack with 128 yards on 31 carries to go with one touchdown. In the last three games, he has amassed 347 yards on 59 touches. His 3-yard plunge with 7 minutes, 14 seconds remaining in the opening quarter kick-started the scoring for Owatonna, capped an 11-play, 59-yard drive and thoroughly set the tone for the rest of the night.

“Sletten ran the ball well,” Owatonna coach Jeff Williams said. “Instead of running our zone schemes, we were running more pull schemes and that seems to be more of what this group is comfortable with and I thought Sletten did a good job hitting the hole.”

Evenly distributing the ball to his three favorite targets, Jacob Ginskey connected on 5 of his first 7 throws and finished 10-for-21 for 123 yards to go with two total touchdowns (one rushing, one passing).

Nolan Ginskey once again led the charge for the talented Owatonna corps, snatching six passes for 51 yards and one touchdown. With 4:05 left in the fourth quarter, he hauled-in a screen near the left flat, knifed through the JM defense and zipped into the end zone from nine yards out to answer the Rockets’ only scoring drive against Owatonna’s starting defense and extend the lead to 31-7.

Owen Beyer added two huge catches for 44 yards while Caleb Hullopeter finished with two receptions for 28 yards.

Mitch Seykora added a rushing touchdown, giving his team a 13-0 lead and ending an impressive 14-play, 73-yard scoring march with a short run at the 2:33-mark of the second quarter.

Owatonna (5-2 overall, 4-0 District) also netted four points in a pair of John Marshall safeties, the second of which was set up by a blocked punt by Blake Fitcher.

Though New Prague technically entered the contest with a better QRF ranking than Owatonna — No. 10 to No. 11, respectively — the win all-but clinches the top seed in the upcoming Section 1-5A tournament. Not only did the Huskies win the head-to-head matchup against the Trojans in Week 3, but finished a perfect 4-0 against sectional opponents overall.

UP NEXT: Owatonna wraps up the regular season on Wednesday against Apple Valley on the road. The Eagles enter the game riding a three-game losing streak — all against state-ranked opponents — and have scored just one touchdown in the span.

	1	2	3	4
JM	0	0	0	14	14
OHS	7	9	9	7	32

FIRST QUARTER

O—Brennan Sletten 3 run (Seth Johnson kick), 7:14

11 plays, 59 yards (7-0 Huskies)

SECOND QUARTER

O—Mitch Seykora 3 run (Johnson kick), 2:33

14 plays, 73 yards (14-0 Huskies)

O—Safety John Marshall, 2:02

1 play, 0 yards (16-0 Huskies)

THIRD QUARTER

O—Safety John Marshall, 10:10

1 play, 0 yards (18-0 Huskies)

O—Jacob Ginskey 8 run (Johnson kick), 7:03

6 plays, 53 yards (25-0 Huskies)

FOURTH QUARTER

JM—Zach Ladu 45 pass from Niko Chin (kick fail)

2 plays, 55 yards (25-6 Huskies)

O—Nolan Ginskey 9 pass Jacob Ginskey (Johnson kick), 4:05

(32-6 Huskies)

JM—Ladu 13 pass from Chin (Ty’Shawn Beane run)

(32-14 Huskies)

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OWATONNA PASSING (COMP-ATT-YDS-TD-INT)

Jacob Ginskey 10-21-123-1-0

OWATONNA RUSHING (ATT-YDS-TD)

Brennan Sletten 31-128-1; Jacob Ginskey 4-22; Mitch Seykora 2-6-1; Mitchell Clark 1-4; Arvig 1-0; Tristan Graham 2-17; Noah Truelson 1-3. TOTALS: 43-189-3

OWATONNA RECEIVING (REC-YDS-TD)

Nolan Ginskey 6-51-1; Owen Beyer 2-44; Caleb Hullopeter 2-28. TOTALS: 10-123-1

OWATONNA DEFENSE LEADERS

Blake Davison 8 tackles; Jack Strom 5 tackles, 1.0 sack; Oran Dowling 5 tackles; Blake Fitcher 6 tackles, 1 BK