ROCHESTER — If ever there was an excuse for the Owatonna football team to lose focus and go through the motions against an inferior opponent, it was Friday night.

By the end of the second quarter, that theory had been obliterated.

With a homecoming showdown against state-ranked rival Mankato West looming in Week 6, the Huskies took the short trip east to Rochester and blew past winless Century, 42-7, in a contest where Owatonna rested its starters for nearly two full quarters.

“We really established ourselves,” Owatonna head coach Jeff Williams said of how his team played in the first half. “It was right from the opening drive. We made things happen in both the run game and the pass game. I thought Hunter (Theis) did a better job this week delivering the ball on time…and I thought he took the next step.”

Shaking off a career-low passing effort against Northfield the previous week where he finished with less than 100 yards and was picked off three times, Theis was razor sharp, completing 11 of 16 passes for 269 yards, five touchdowns — and perhaps most importantly — zero interceptions.

Nolan Ginskey continued his dazzling campaign in the race for the 2024 Mr. Football award, hauling in four of his five targets for a game-high 137 yards. His lone touchdown came on 3^rd-and-long on Owatonna’s opening drive, spanned 73 yards and featured multiple highlight-reel jukes, dashes and cuts near the home sideline that left three Panthers’ defenders in his dust. For the season, he now has 30 receptions for 611 yards and eight touchdowns in just five games.

Luke Webber also put together a stat-stuffing performance, scoring on a deep 48-yard bomb from Theis and a nifty catch-and-run wide receiver screen from 13 yards out to make it 35-0 with nearly 4 minutes, 30 seconds still remaining in the second quarter. He also made a diving interception near midfield to thwart the Panthers’ opening drive of the third quarter.

Coming into the game, Webber had caught just three passes for four yards in the previous two games combined. On Friday, he finished with 78 yards on four grabs.

“Honestly it felt really good,” Webber said moments after the game. “But I think it really shows what kind of weapons we really have on this team. And, honestly, the biggest part is that we got the win. That makes it feel that much better — that’s the most important thing.”

Added Williams: “(Webber) is obviously a huge weapon for us. I mean, he’s so fast and has very nice hands. The ‘X’ position sometimes becomes a one-trick or two-trick pony where you’re running fades all day, but we changed things up a little this week and gave some of those outside receivers a little more freedom and Luke took advantage of that.”

The third weapon in Owatonna’s devastating receiver corps, Seth Johnson, also made an impact, scoring his first career touchdown on a jump ball in the back of the end zone and drilling the extra point to make it 14-0 with 1:07 left in the opening quarter.

After a blocked punt on the Panthers’ ensuing possession, the Huskies took over at the CHS 1 yard line and extended the lead to 21-0 when Tristan Graham found the end zone on the final play of the opening quarter. For the game, Graham finished with 63 yards on 13 carries and one touchdown.

Third-ranked Owatonna moves to 5-0 and 3-0 in district/section action and hosts Mankato West (3-2) for homecoming on Friday at 7 p.m. The Scarlets — who compete in a different section and sub-district than the Huskies — gave up 24 points in the fourth quarter and lost 37-28 to Chanhassen in Week 5. Earlier this season, of course, OHS defeated the Storm, 21-7.

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OWATONNA 42, CENTURY 7

FIRST QUARTER

0—Nolan Ginskey 82 pass from Hunter Theis (Seth Johnson kick), 10:23

O—Seth Johnson 20 from Theis (Johnson kick), 1:08

O—Tristan Graham 1 run (Johnson kick), 0:01

SECOND QUARTER

O—Luke Webber 63 pass from Theis (Johnson kick), 9:37

O—Webber 13 pass from Theis (Johnson kick), 4:26

RC—Long 7 pass from Severson (Buchmann kick), 1:37

THIRD QUARTER

O—Ginskey 29 pass from Theis (Johnson kick), 9:39

OWATONNA INDIVIDUAL STATS

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

Hunter Theis 11-16-269-5-0; Michael Heitkamp 2-7-19-0-0; Aedan Tackmann 1-2-4-0-0; TOTALS 14-25-292-5-0

RUSHING (ATT-YDS-TD-FUM)

Heitkamp 3-10; Theis 3(-1); Tristan Graham 13-63-1-0; Carter Flatland 7-31; TOTALS 28-118-1-0

RECEIVING (REC-YDS-TD-FUM)

Bentley Arvig 1-4-0-0; Seth Johnson 3-40-1-0; Nolan Ginskey 4-137-2-0; Luke Webber 7-78-2-0; Flatland 1-8; Zachary Haarstad 1-25; TOTALS 14-292-5-0

DEFENSE

Darian Stransky 7 TCKL (2 solo); Blake Fitcher 4 TCKL (4 solo)-1 INT; Blake Davison 6 TCKL (5 solo)-1 BK; Nolan Ginskey 3 TCKL-1 INT; Zach Haarstad 1 SCK