If you’re going to snap a multi-year losing streak against your state powerhouse rival, you might as well make it count.

That is exactly what the Owatonna football team did Friday night against Mankato West in front of a lively capacity crowd at Federated Stadium Field.

The Huskies never trailed, built a lead that swelled to as many as four touchdowns and won 28-14 in a contest that felt far more lop-sided than the final margin might suggest.

Bottom line, this one was all Huskies.

“They’ve had our number lately,” Owatonna senior Zach Dahnert said moments after the game. “And this feels absolutely incredible. I couldn’t ask for a better way to end on my last homecoming game here in Owatonna. It’s just awesome.”

Entering the high-profile showdown, Mankato West had won four straight games in the series by an average margin of more than 30 points, including last season’s 42-7 blowout in Mankato.

But that was then, and this is now.

Owatonna hasn’t lost a regular season game since its last meeting with the Scarlets and has ascended all the way to No. 3 in the latest statewide poll thanks to its 6-0 start this season. Entering Week 6, the Huskies (6-0) had allowed no more than seven points in any single contest and once again flexed their defensive prowess against the formerly state-ranked Scarlets, coming 8 minutes, 18 seconds shy of handing West its first shutout loss since 2012 when, ironically, Owatonna defeated the Scarlets 28-0 in Class AAAAA state quarterfinals.

“Our defense did a really good job of putting them behind the chains all night,” Owatonna coach Jeff Williams said. “We took advantage of some mistakes and our offense was able to punch it in on some shorter fields.”

Even after allowing a few late touchdowns, the 14-point final deficit matches the largest margin of victory for the Huskies in the regular season series since Oct. 17, 2007 when they won 29-15 at Todnem Field in Mankato.

Beating Mankato West by double-digits is such a rarity that not even Owatonna’s original state-title winning team was able to accomplish such a feat, needing dramatic last-second field goal by Carter McCauley to win 24-21 in Week 3 of the 2013 regular season. The last time Owatonna beat the Scarlets prior to Friday night, the Huskies trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter and needed a furious comeback to pull off a 24-20 win on their home field.

Friday night required no such heroics.

Despite committing one of its five first half penalties and turning the ball over on its opening drive, Owatonna quickly rebounded and bolted out to a 14-0 lead thanks to a Tristan Graham 11-yard scamper and a 23-yard Nolan Ginskey reception in a 54-second span in the middle of the first quarter. By the end of the stanza, Owatonna had already forced three turnovers — two of which led directly to touchdowns — and out-gained the Scarlets 107-4 in total yards, prompting the visitors to take a drastic measure in hopes of igniting its stagnant offense .

Ditching its shotgun-heavy, spread out attack and lining up in a tightly-packed, Power-T formation to start the second quarter, Mankato West originally appeared to gain some decent traction after churning out nearly 40 yards on eight straight runs, but the strategy ultimately proved to be a futile, albeit bold, maneuver in the grand tapestry of the contest. Any momentum the Scarlets had accumulated throughout the the possession was abruptly snuffed out when Owatonna stonewalled the Scarlets (3-3) on back-to-back runs and forced an incomplete pass on 3rd-and-11. After punting the ball back to the Huskies, the Scarlets had wasted more than half the second quarter clock and failed to put a dent into Owatonna’s double-digit lead.

They never went back to the Power-T again.

“We were playing a little higher at the start and gearing up for the pass,” Dahnert said. “But once they started running the Power T, (coach) Achterkirch got on us and brought all three of the d-linemen over to the sideline and said: ‘you better buckle down otherwise they are going to run it down our throats.’ And the boys came through when we needed it.”

Despite missing a short field goal after Dahnert interception — the first of his career — and seeing another drive thwarted just outside the red zone in the third quarter, Owatonna remained in complete control as the game stretched into the final stanza.

And then, the knockout blow.

Owatonna rang up its final two touchdowns in a furious 48-second outburst that started when Graham slipped around the edge and dashed into the end zone from 10 yards out at the 11:10-mark. Owatonna quickly re-gained possession when Logan Risser pounced on a loose ball on the ensuing kickoff at the West 10-yard line, setting up a Hunter Theis to Zach Haarstad connection to help give the Huskies a 28-0 lead with 10:22 left on the clock. The catch was Haarstad’s first TD of his career and the second and final scoring toss of the game for Theis.

Facing an experienced and imposing defensive front comparable to what he saw against Chanhassen four weeks prior, Graham ran with a relentless tenacity against Mankato West, grinding out 90 rushing yards and accounting for half of Owatonna’s four touchdowns.

“We knew they were going to be a big defensive line like Chanhassen,” said Graham, who was held to just four yards against the Storm in Week 2. “We were already comparing them to those guys. But, honestly, our offensive line buckled down. They got underneath their pads and did their job. They were aggressive. They got off the line hard and did what they needed to do. You have to give a lot of credit to the blocking in the run game.”

Ginskey added another 126 yards, eight receptions and one touchdown to his prolific ongoing season total and now has 711 yards, 38 catches and nine touchdowns through just six games. He has gained no fewer than 86 receiving yards in any single contest and has surpassed 100 yards four times. The Mr. Football candidate also collected his team-leading fourth interception of the season against West and batted away two passes.

As a team, OHS held the Scarlets to just 237 total yards, more than half of which came during West’s back-to-back scoring drives late in the game. Entering the fourth quarter, the Scarlets had been held to just 2.7 yards-per-carry.
Owatonna also forced a season-high six turnovers.

Blake Davison put together one of the finest performances in his ultra-productive career, racking up 14 tackles and one sack. Fellow senior, Jamie Lisowski, provided a pair of bone-crunching hits and finished with six tackles and one interception. Max Flemke added a season-high five stops from his position up front on the defensive line. Blake Fitcher forced one fumble and ended with five tackles.

Though the Huskies allowed multiple touchdowns for the first time all season, they certainly didn’t make it easy on the Scarlets. Mankato’s first TD — a one-yard run by Frank Mcaninch — came on fourth down on a play where the ball appeared to have been jarred loose just short of the goal line. As for its second touchdown, was made possible only after the Scarlets converted a pair of desperate 4th-and-long situations.

UP NEXT: Owatonna will square off against a resurgent and athletic Rochester John Marshall squad on Friday night at John Drews Field. The Rockets spent a few weeks in the Class 5A top 10 in late-September and their only loss this season came in Week 4 against state-ranked Mankato East in overtime.

Both teams come in 3-0 in Northstar Distict South-Maroon and Section 1-5A action.

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OWATONNA 28, MANKATO WEST 14

FIRST QUARTER

O—Tristan Graham 11 run (Landen Sturgis kick), 5:33

O—Nolan Ginskey 23 pass from Hunter Theis (Sturgis kick), 4:29

FOURTH QUARTER

O—Graham 10 run (Sturgis kick), 11:10

O—Zach Haarstad 10 pass from Theis (Sturgis kick), 10:22

MW—Frank Mcaninch 1 run (kick good), 8:18

MW—Taevin Pribyl 16 pass from Charles Bobholz (kick good), 3:59

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