It was all smiles for the top-seeded Owatonna football team after Friday night’s Section 1-5A blowout victory over No. 2 Northfield.
No grins were wider than those of Jacob Ginskey and Owen Beyer.
“I mean, every year we have been grinding to get this, and it’s finally here,” Beyer said after the Huskies’ 35-6 victory at Federated Field. “It’s good to hear all these boys screaming and I can’t wait to go celebrate in the locker room right now. I’m pretty much speechless right now.”
“Coming up short the last two years is heartbreaking,” added Ginskey. “You know, this year, we knew if we put in the work and got to where we needed to be everything was right in front of us. We knew we could do this, and that’s what we did. Just so grateful for the coaching staff, grateful for all my teammates — it’s such a fun group. We are going to celebrate this weekend and get back to work on Monday.”
Beyer and Ginskey are two of several Owatonna seniors that were either on the sideline, or started, in the 2021 and 2022 Section 1-5A title games, both of which ended with losses to Rochester Mayo.
With Mayo’s enrollment swelling to more than 2,000 students and its football program reclassifying to Class 6A, Owatonna and Northfield were pegged as the two best teams remaining in the slimmed-down 5-team section bracket when the new season kicked off this past August. After Owatonna survived the regular season battle, 26-21, the two teams launched on a collision course that ultimately led to Friday night’s clash in Owatonna.
The Raiders stole momentum out of the gates by recovering an onside kick on the game’s first play.
However, the good vibes on the visitors’ sideline didn’t last long.
Nolan Ginskey picked off a Kamden Kaiser pass on the third play of Northfield’s first offensive possession and the Huskies didn’t wait long to strike in what was a prolific stretch of execution over the next 46 minutes of football. The effort included a nearly-perfect performance from the Huskies’ quarterback, a record-breaking milestone by their top offensive weapon and, of course, a shiny new plaque to add to Owatonna’s already-crowded trophy case.
The victory secures the program’s 11th section championship, 10 of which have come under the current coaching regime helmed by Jeff Williams. The Huskies (8-2) will play in their first state tournament game since 2019 when they meet St. Thomas Academy at noon on Saturday, Nov. 11 at Woodbury High School. The Cadets (8-2) blew out Bloomington Jefferson, 43-14, in the Section 3-5A championship game on Friday night.
“Our kids really rededicated themselves this offseason,” Williams said. “They were awesome in the weight room this summer. Awesome in practice — just a great culture around this senior group. They have been such great leaders.”
After completing 12 of 13 passes (92%) for 227 yards and two touchdowns, Jacob Ginskey surpassed 2,000 yards for the season and stands at 3,778 yards in what has been a memorable three-year run as the Huskies’ starting quarterback. His career started when he took the helm midway through his sophomore year, wound through a tumultuous junior campaign before rocketing to new heights this season.
“He’s matured a lot,” Williams said. “He faced some adversity last season and stared it down squarely in the eye and has had a great season. That’s what being a man is all about, and he’s definitely demonstrated that.”
Nolan Ginskey found the end zone on a long catch-and-run for the second straight week to get Owatonna’s scoring barrage started — this time leaking past the secondary and hauling in a perfectly-spun throw and scoring from 58 yards out — and finished with a team-best 125 receiving yards on five receptions. He now has exactly 1,000 yards for the season and becomes just the second Owatonna receiver in school history to surpass quadruple-digits in a single season, joining Noah Budach from 2017 (1,041).
Beyer needed just two receptions to reach 50 yards and scored his fifth touchdown of the season. Tight end Jack Strom added four catches for 39 yards.
Brennan Sletten continued his torrid stretch of production over the last six games and registered his third triple-digit effort of the season with a team-best 112 rushing yards to go with two touchdowns.
The Huskies’ gnarly defense held Northfield to negative-6 yards in the first half and allowed just one first down in the opening 24 minutes which came on a 15-yard pass interference penalty on 3rd-and-14 late in the opening quarter.
The Huskies — who failed to score on 4th-and-goal from inside the Northfield 2-yard line late in the first quarter — started pulling away in the second. Beyer scored the first of two Owatonna touchdowns in the stanza after bending to his knees and corralling a pass from his elusive quarterback.
“That’s one of the things that Jacob does so well,” Beyer said. “Being able to produce a play longer than what it was planned for. Our coaches tell us every day, keep the route going, run it all the way through and when Jacob is scrambling, keep going. He is going to find you, and that’s exactly what he did.”
The Huskies got another shot at converting deep in the red zone late in the second quarter and this time didn’t leave empty-handed, extending their lead to 21-0 when Jacob Ginskey charged forward from 1 yard out with 1 minute, 4 seconds on the clock.
Northfield got the ball to start the second half and moved the chains for the first time on a non-penalty-aided play at the 11:07-mark on a 22-yard Kaiser reception before getting back in the game, albeit temporarily, on a 41-yard strike from Seth Peterson to Kaiser.
Owatonna promptly marched 69 yards on eight plays on its ensuing offensive possession and jumped back ahead by three scores when Sletten knifed through a giant gap in the NHS defense and into the end zone from 12 yards out. He added a 5-yard TD in the middle of the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.
Sletten and Blake Davison combined for a huge sack in the first quarter while Jamie Lisowski batted away a pair of passes to lead the defensive secondary.
For the game, Northfield finished with just eight first downs and 36 rushing yards, most of which came on a 17-yard Peterson run late in the second half.
SEYKORA INVITED TO ALL-STAR GAME
Senior Mitch Seykora became the latest in a long list of Owatonna players to be invited to the annual Minnesota High School Football All-Star game sponsored by the Minnesota Vikings.
Seykora is a reigning all-district honorable mention performer and currently leads the Huskies in sacks with 4.0. Routinely seeing teams run away from him, he’s still managed to rack up 23 solo tackles while tying for the team lead with two blocked-kicks and one forced fumble.
The game is slated to be played on Saturday, December 2, 2023.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| NHS | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| OHS | 7 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 35 |
FIRST QUARTER
O—Nolan Ginskey 58 pass from Jacob Ginskey (Seth Johnson kick), 6:39, 7-0 HUSKIES
SECOND QUARTER
O—Owen Beyer 12 pass from Ginskey (Johnson kick), 9:05, 14-0 HUSKIES
O—Jacob Ginskey 1 run (Johnson kick), 1:04, 21-0 HUSKIES
THIRD QUARTER
N—Kamden Kaiser 41 pass from Seth Thompson (Kick fail), 9:06, 21-6 HUSKIES
O—Brennan Sletten 12 run (Johnson kick), 5:17, 28-6 HUSKIES
FOURTH QUARTER
O—Sletten 5 run (Johnson kick), 5:40, 35-6 HUSKIES
OWATONNA PASSING (COMP-ATT-YDS-TD-INT)
Jacob Ginskey 12-13-227-2-0 (92%)
OWATONNA RUSHING (ATT-YDS-TD)
Brennan Sletten 22-116-2; Nolan Ginskey 1-1; Mitch Seykora 1-1; Jacob Ginskey 5-19-1; Jamie Liskowski 1-2; Reilly Kleeberger 4-13. TOTALS: 34-140-2 (4.4 AVG)
OWATONNA RECEIVING (REC-YDS-TD)
Nolan Ginskey 5-125-1; Owen Beyer 2-50-1; Jack Strom 4-39; Caleb Hullopeter 1-13. TOTALS: 12-227-2 (18.9 AVG)
THE HUSKY BULLETIN 
Leave a comment