SLETTEN SHINES, HUSKIES THUMP EAGLES

APPLE VALLEY — Owatonna’s Brennan Sletten is the embodiment of a patient and calculated football player.

When the 6-foot-1, 170-pound tailback gets his hands on the ball, every step is deliberate, each pace as purposeful as the last, and only as valuable as the next. He doesn’t panic if the hole doesn’t materialize right away and you won’t find him running east-to-west at the first sign of trouble.

If he suddenly finds himself with two defenders piling on his back, a few more diving at his ankles and another violently trying to rip the ball from his grasp, Sletten is more than happy to simply secure football and safely plow forward until the play is whistled dead.

What Sletten might lack in flashiness and elite athleticism, he more than makes up for by maximizing every opportunity he’s presented and always — always — keeping those legs churning. If the defense gives him an inch, he’s bound to take about six yards. If they give him less, he’ll take less. If they give him more, he’ll take more.

It’s pretty much that simple.

“Every time I get the ball, (the offensive line) gives me a chance and that’s all I need,” he said after Owatonna’s 49-12 blowout win over Apple Valley on Wednesday. “The line just opens holes, and I just run.”

When the new season rolled around last summer, Sletten was actually one of the favorites to earn a starting nod at on the other side of the ball at outside linebacker and was expected to challenge for semi-regular playing time at tailback — and that’s pretty much exactly how things transpired for the first four games of the season. Sletten rarely left the field on defense during Owatonna’s 3-1 start and split carries almost exactly 50-50 with Jamie Lisowski during the stretch, each one averaging around 8-10 attempts per game. Neither had done enough to convince the coaches make any major alterations to the depth chart and it looked like the Huskies had settled into a true running-back-by-committee approach for the foreseeable future.

That all changed on homecoming night.

“I would say it was that Century game,” Sletten said when asked the turning point of his season. “Just getting those runs and getting a feel for the holes and how to get into open space was huge. Ever since then it’s gone pretty well.”

Spurred by a 169-yard breakout effort in Owatonna’s blowout win over the Panthers on Sept. 29, Sletten has taken full control of the team’s primary ball-carrying duties and hasn’t looked back since. After accumulating 36 combined carries in Weeks 1-4, he’s more than doubled that output in the last four contests and has accumulated 75% of his total production in the stretch, racking up 434 of his 580 rushing yards.

After ringing up another 105 total yards (87 rushing, 18 receiving) against Apple Valley in the regular season finale on Wednesday night, Sletten has now surpassed triple digits in total yards in three of Owatonna’s previous four games. The lone contest were he failed to reach that milestone came in Week 6 against arguably the stingiest run defense in the entire state (Mankato West) — and yet he still managed to ring up 50 yards on just eight touches (6.2 YPC).

“I’ve been playing a little bit of defense and sort of backed off of that recently (to focus on offense),” Sletten said “and “I just feel like recently the ball has gotten rolling and I have just gone from there.”

Against Apple Valley, Sletten played a central role in Owatonna’s game-defining scoring march to begin the second half, referring to it to as a “statement drive” and the “most important drive of the game.” Owatonna was flagged for a block in the back penalty on the kickoff and began the fateful possession at the Eagles’ 10 yard line.

Eleven plays, seven Sletten carries, 90 yards and one dazzling Owen Beyer catch later, the Huskies had rediscovered their mojo and all-but coaxed the white flag from the suddenly-weary Eagles’ sideline.

“Putting together a statement drive like that and marching for a long time right down the field and putting it away was huge,” Sletten said. “That was the most important drive of the game.”

Added Owatonna coach Jeff Williams: “We were pretty upset at halftime based on some of the mistakes we made and some of our failure to execute on some of the things we need to get better at. But I thought coming out of halftime, taking the ball, taking six minutes off the clock and ending the drive with a touchdown was really important.”

Sletten accounted for 30 rushing yards on Owatonna’s scoring march to begin the third quarter and moved the chains on a critical snap by plowing forward for five yards on 4th-and-inches from just inside the Apple Valley 30. After literally carrying the Huskies into the red zone by gaining 11 rushing yards over the next two plays, Beyer out-jumped, out-maneuvered and out-muscled his defender in the left corner of the end zone and hauled-in a 19-yard TD strike from Ginskey to extend Owatonna’s lead back to a comfortable margin of 35-12.

Apparently this didn’t go through the first time, but here is Owen Beyer’s awesome TD grab in the 3rd that put the Huskies up 35-12 at the time. pic.twitter.com/bjebswU8Xm
— JON WEISBROD™️ (@WeisbrodJon) October 19, 2023

Though the Huskies (6-2) were never in serious jeopardy of losing their lead after they went ahead for the first time on a 50-yard catch-and-run by Caleb Hullopeter at the 8:01-mark of the opening stanza, Apple Valley (3-5) clung to life in the first half and cut the advantage to 28-12 when Jackson Thornburgh scored on a 25-yard scramble on 4th-and-12 with 1 minute, 39 seconds remaining before the break.

The Huskies had roughly 90 seconds to work with after the ensuing kickoff and set up shop at their own 29, but unintentionally sapped precious seconds off the clock on their first four plays of the drive before ultimately failing to cash-in on a 48-yard catch-and-run by Hullopeter on a play that ended when the senior was tackles just inside the 10 yard line as time expired.

“Obviously we weren’t able to find a way to get into the end zone there and time ran out,” Williams said. “Apple Valley had a little momentum heading into the half and we were a little irritated with some of the big plays we’d given up. We were pretty fired up at halftime.”

As the second half rolled along and Owatonna’s heavy offensive line continued to pry open holes for Sletten and the running game, it was only a matter of time before the Huskies’ devastating passing attack would simply be overwhelm the Eagles’ young secondary.

And that’s exactly what happened.

Owatonna not only found paydirt on its opening possession of the second half, but added a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter as well. Sletten capped what turned out to be the final drive of the game for the OHS starters with a 10-yard scoring dash at the 9:59 mark before Hunter Theis hooked up with Reilly Kleebereger from seven yards out at the 2:22-mark.

Jacob Ginskey put together one of his finest career performances from a sheer percentage standpoint, connecting on 16 of 20 passes (80%) for 267 yards, two touchdowns and zero turnovers while adding a short TD run in the first half.

Even after averaging just 112 yards over the previous three games — which was roughly 90 yards below his season average entering Week 8 — Ginskey still finished as one of the top passers in all of Class 5A during the regular season. In eight games, he’s thrown for 1,667 yards, 15 touchdowns and has been intercepted just two twice. This comes after being picked off 15 times in his sophomore and junior season combined.

Hullopeter was Ginskey’s favorite target against the Eagles and racked up a career-high 178 yards on just six catches (29.7 YPC). His 50-yard touchdown grab in the opening quarter was his team-leading seventh of the year. Beyer ended with 43 yards on four catches and snatched his fourth touchdown of the season.

Nolan Ginskey was a tad quieter than usual on offense (4 catches, 24 yards), but made a huge impact on the other side of the ball, stepping in front of a wayward Thornburgh pass and returning it 43 yards for a touchdown at the 4:57 mark of the season.

Defensively, the Huskies not only found the end zone, but pitched a shutout in the second half and held Apple Valley’s stable of dangerous, albeit injury-depleted, athletes largely in-check. After North Dakota State recruit, William Washington, escaped for an 85-yard touchdown run on the first snap of the game, the Eagles gained just 50 rushing yards for the remainder of the contest, half of which came on Thornburgh’s TD run late in the second quarter.

Thornburgh finished 13-for-25 for just 123 yards to go with zero TD passes and one costly interception.

UP NEXT

It was officially announced on Thursday morning that Owatonna will receive the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Section 1-5A tournament and will play the winner of No. 4 Rochester John Marshall (3-5) and No. 5 Rochester Century (1-7) on Saturday, Oct. 28 at Federated Field.

Click HERE for final Section 1-5A standings

Click HERE for final the Section 1-5A bracket

NOTES, NEWS & MORE

TRAILING JUST 8-6 AT THE TIME, Apple Valley elected to go for it on 4th-and-7 from its own 35 yard line and was immediately burned when Jackson Thornburgh’s pass toward an open receiver down the right sideline was overthrown. Owatonna took over in prime position and needed just six plays to find the end zone
LATE IN THE OPENING QUARTER, Nolan Ginskey tracked down Noah Mergerson from behind and made a touchdown-saving shoestring tackle near the left sideline. The play went for 45 yards, but the Eagles ultimately came up scoreless on the possession in a game that OHS led just 8-6 at the time.
CALEB HULLOPETER MADE A SPECTACULAR ONE-HANDED CATCH early in the second quarter on a pass that was tipped into the air by an Apple Valley defender that had blanketed him the whole way. Tracking the ball for as it twirled end-over-end and began plummeting toward the turf below, Hullopeter fell to his knees, extended his forearms and cradled the pigskin a mere two inches above the ground. The officinal nearest to the play was in good position to make the call and immediately signaled for a catch. The completion spanned 43 yards and helped set up Owatonna’s third TD of the game just four plays later.

HUSKIES 49 – EAGLES 12