COVER PHOTO BY JON WEISBROD

As the regular season reaches its midseason pivot, the Owatonna offense is still a work in progress .

The defense, on the other hand, is having no such troubles. In fact, the Huskies have been downright devastating.

And that might be putting it lightly.

Fresh off a performance in which it allowed New Prague to cross midfield exactly once in final three quarters of the contest, the Huskies’ gnarly defense returned home and, somehow, tapped into a whole new level of domination in a crushing 39-6 blowout of Northfield in a Northstar South Maroon District showdown at Federated Field.

Thwarting the Raiders’ every move with its lethal combination of air-tight coverage in the secondary and a ball-hawking tenacity in the box, Owatonna yielded just 19 total yards and two first downs for the entire game. Northfield quarterback, Seth Thompson, was routinely hounded in the pocket and connected on just 1 of his 10 total pass attempts for two yards. He was also sacked three times and pressured on more than half of his drop backs.

Owatonna set the tone early in the trenches and kept Northfield’s run-heavy operation out-of-sorts and off-kilter, allowing just 18 rushing yards on 23 attempts. If not for a 13-yard run in the first quarter a 10-yard run in the fourth, Northfield would have netted negative-3 yards of total offense.

As usual, linebackers Blake Fitcher and Blake Davison spearheaded the Huskies’ defensive effort and combined for 13 tackles. Darian Stransky added four tackles and collected the first two sacks of his career.

Though Northfield technically got on the scoreboard — finding the end zone on a kick return late in the fourth quarter — the Huskies’ starters pitched another four quarters of shutout football and have now surrendered just 14 total points in a little more than 15 combined quarters of action across four games.

“I think one of the big things that motivates our defense is the coaches are constantly on us, telling us we aren’t perfect,” Fitcher said moments after the game. “And I think that leaves a little something in our hearts — it’s like ‘wow, maybe we aren’t as good as we think,’ And I think that makes us step up and bring our game to another level. And you just hope that’s the trend going forward.”

Added captain Nolan Ginskey: “I am so proud of the way we played. It all started with the defense tonight.”

Indeed, it was the defense that got things started for the Huskies on Friday night. Quite literally.

Owatonna got on the board first on a safety in the middle of the opening quarter and scored again to make it 9-0 when Nolan Ginskey stepped in front of a pass, tight-roped the sideline and accelerated 75 yards to paydirt less than four minutes later.

Ginskey, though, was only getting started as the two-way superstar rang up the first of his two receiving touchdowns with 4 minutes, 42 seconds left before halftime, galloping past his defender and snatching a perfectly feathered spiral from Hunter Theis to help extend the lead to 16-0.

On the first possession of the second half, the Huskies sent out their punt unit for the first time all game after gaining just four yards on the previous three plays.

And then, a little good fortune.

On the ensuing boot, a Northfield defender leaked through the final line of OHS blockers and was unable to stop his momentum as he grazed Owatonna punter Landen Sturges, drawing a 5-yard penalty and setting up a 4-and-1 from the OHS 41 yard line.

Owatonna head coach Jeff Williams didn’t hesitate.

Lining up around the ball nearly 10 yards shy of midfield, the Huskies trotted their offense back on to the field and — after initially attempting to draw the Raiders offsides with a hard count — put the ball into Tristan Graham’s hands and watched as their talented junior halfback busted loose for a 29-yard scamper.

Five plays later, Graham was powering his way into the end zone from 1 yard out and capping a 9-play, 68-yard scoring drive that extended the Huskies’ lead to 23-0. On the possession, Graham racked up 43 of his game-high 119 rushing yards and now has 247 total yards on 36 combined carries in the last two weeks.

“We were hoping that would spark us — and it did,” Owatonna head coach Jeff Williams said of his running game. “To go for it on fourth down and crack off a big run was awesome. Tristan Graham is hitting his stride.”

After forcing its seventh and final three-and-out of the game on Northfield’s first drive of the second half, Owatonna promptly got the ball back and marched 48 yards on five plays, ringing up six more points when Ginskey snatched a pass across the middle and knifed through the defense from 28 yards out to help make it 30-0.

For the game, Ginskey finished with four receptions for 86 yards and was credited for a pair of rushes for 22 yards. He also batted away two passes in the defensive secondary and contributed three tackles.

Seth Johnson drilled a 42-yard field goal to round out the scoring for Owatonna’s starting offense, but that didn’t stop Carter Flatland from making a little history and accomplishing a career milestone along the way. On string of touches that began late in the third quarter and stretched deep into the fourth, Flatland set a new school record for consecutive carries by a running back with 16 totes in a row, surpassing the previous mark of 14. The punishing junior halfback finished with 86 rushing yards and scored his first career touchdown at the 3:40 mark of the fourth quarter, shouldering the majority of the load down the stretch as the Huskies successfully salted the game away and moved the chains on the ground to close things out.

Owatonna finished with a season-high 265 rushing yards on 41 carries, finding the end one twice and averaging a healthy 6.5 yards-per-carry.

“I thought we ran the ball really well,” Williams said.

But as pleased as he was with the progression of his ground game, Williams was far less satisfied with how things turned out through the air, particularly in a forgettable opening quarter that saw Theis fire three interceptions, one of which came deep in the red zone and all of which came on Northfield’s side of the field.

But each time, the Huskies’ defense buckled down and each time they bailed out the offense, holding strong until the the other side of the ball finally came around in the middle of the second quarter.

“We put (the defense) in some potentially difficult situations,” Williams added. “But I had a lot of confidence that they would continue to get stops when we turned it over. They really stymied everything Northfield wanted to do. But it’s time for us to get a little mojo on offense…Our biggest concern right now throwing the ball is that it’s Ginskey or nothing. I don’t think our protection has been terrible. Our quarterbacks just have to learn to hang in the pocket a little longer and trust (the offensive line). And we have to be quicker with our reads.”

For the game, Theis finished with a season-low 90 yards on 6 of 17 passing to go with two touchdowns and three interceptions.

The No. 4-ranked Huskies move to 4-0 and travel to play winless Rochester Century in Week 5.

---

OWATONNA 39, NORTHFIELD 6

FIRST QUARTER

0—Safety, 6:58; 2-0 Huskies

O—Nolan Ginskey 75 interception return (Seth Johnson kick), 4:32; 9-0 Huskies

SECOND QUARTER

O—Ginskey 43 pass from Hunter Theis (Johnson kick), 4:42; 16-0 Huskies

THIRD QUARTER

O—Tristan Graham 1 run (Johnson kick); 23-0 Huskies

O—Ginskey 28 pass from Theis (Johnson kick), 4:41; 3-0-0 Huskies

FOURTH QUARTER

O—Johnson 42 field goal, 10:26 33-0 Huskies

O—Carter Flatland 4 run (Run fail), 3:40 39-0 Huskies

N—Savion Severson 89 kick return (Run fail), 3:28 39-6 Huskies

OWATONNA INDIVIDUAL STATS

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

Hunter Theis 6-17-90-2-3; Michael Heitkamp 3-5-16-0-0 TOTALS 9-22-106-2-3

RUSHING (ATT-YDS-TD-FUM)

Nolan Ginskey 2-22; Theis 2-6; Jamie Lisowski 1-3; Blake Fitcher 2-10; Tristan Graham 16-119-1-0; Carter Flatland 6-84-1; TOTALS 41-265-2-0

RECEIVING (REC-YDS-TD-FUM)

Bentley Arvig 2-15; Seht Johnson 1-6; Nolan Ginskey 4-86-2-0; Lucas Webber 1(-2); Flatland 1-1; TOTALS 9-106-2-0

DEFENSE

Blake Fitcher 7 TCKL (7 solo); Blake Davison 6 TCKL (5 solo); Darian Strasky 4 TCKL (4 solo)-2 SACK; Ginskey 3 TCKL-1 INT-2 PD