In the final tune-up for what is gearing up to be a deep postseason run, the Owatonna football team shook off some inconsistencies on offense and once again rode the devastating tidal wave that its starting defense, crashing down on Apple Valley, 35-7, at Federated Field on Wednesday night in a Northstar District crossover game.

The victory wraps up the program’s fifth undefeated regular season since 2012 and first since 2019. The No. 2-ranked Huskies will now host either New Prague or Rochester Century next Saturday, Oct. 26 for the Section 1-5A semifinals having won 10 of their last 11 games dating back to Week 6 of the 2023 regular season. It is also the program’s second consecutive South-Maroon sub-district title and 21st league championship overall.

Against the Eagles on Wednesday night — and just five days removed from a hard-fought and physical victory over formerly-state-ranked Rochester John Marshall — Owatonna (8-0) came firing out of the gates, building a 21-0 lead by the middle of the second quarter. Seth Johnson got the scoring started with a highlight-reel one-handed grab in the back of the end zone to cap the Huskies’ ultra-effective game-opening drive with his third TD grab of the season with 7 minutes, 41 seconds left in the opening quarter.

The Huskies — who should have built an even greater lead in the first-half if not for a lost fumble inside the Apple Valley 5-yard line late in the first quarter — exploded for consecutive touchdowns on back-to-back drives to build a commanding three-touchdown advantage heading into the break.

Tristan Graham, who led the Huskies with 111 rushing yards on 22 carries, scored the first of his game-high two touchdowns at the 8:54-mark of the second from four yards out.

Starting the season at the No. 2 running back behind Jamie Lisowski, Graham has taken the reigns as the Huskies’ top option out of the backfield, amassing 688 yards on 133 carries for an even 5.0 per-carry average. His eight rushing touchdowns are tops on the team in that category and second only to Nolan Ginskey in overall TDs. Counting his effort against the Eagles, he now has three games with at least 100 yards.p

“(Graham) is a slippery little guy,” Owatonna head coach, Jeff Williams, said. “He’s hard to pick up and hard to tackle — good spin move. He doesn’t stop and try to elude. In stead, he drops his shoulder, and then spins out of it.”

After Luke Webber snatched a three-yard touchdown pass on a slant pattern across the middle of a wide-open end zone at the 4:22-mark of the second quarter, Owatonna’s offense spun its wheels over the next quarter-and-a-half quarters, its next five possessions featuring three 3-and-outs, a turnover on downs and loss of possession due to the expiration of the second quarter clock.

Owatonna’s defense, though, kept the lead strong within its grasp, surrendering just six rushing yards and one first down in the first half and continuing its suffocating ways in the third quarter by forcing four punts on Apple Valley’s first four possessions of the second half.

“Our defense has been unbelievable,” Williams said. “Fitcher and Davison, they just mop up, which means our secondary isn’t having to make a lot of tackles — and that’s great. They can just cover, cover, cover and don’t have to worry about coming off receivers and making tackles and things like that. These linebackers — all of them — do a great job of just cleaning everything up. That also means that your defensive line has to occupy blockers and keep those (offensive linemen) from climbing to the second level, and they’ve done that.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was a pair of defensive plays that directly-resulted in the final two touchdowns of the game, both of which came courtesy of superstar Nolan Ginskey. The senior picked off a pass early in the fourth quarter to set to set up an eventual 15-yard touchdown run by Graham and returned his second interception 57 yards to paydirt less than two minutes later to extend the lead to 35-0.

Seth Johnson led the Huskies with five grabs for 63 yards.

Theis started the game 9-for-10 and ultimately completed just one pass in the second half, finishing the game 10 of 17 for 99 yards, two touchdowns and zero turnovers.

The only TD Apple Valley scored came with just 26 seconds left on the clock against Owatonna’s second and third-string units.

Blake Davison paced the Huskies with 11 tackles and finishes the regular season 75 stops, trending ahead of last season’s team-best total of 99.

Blake Fitcher and Jamie Lisowski added six and five tackles, respectively. Darian Stransky added four tackles and one forced fumble.

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OWATONNA 35, APPLE VALLEY 7

FIRST QUARTER

O—Seth Johnson 20 pass from Hunter Theis (Johnson kick), 7:41

SECOND QUARTER

O—Tristan Graham 4 run (Johnson kick), 8:54

O—Luke Webber 3 pass from Theis (Johnson kick), 4:22

FOURTH QUARTER

O—Graham 15 run (Johnson kick), 9:41

O—Nola Ginskey 47 interception return (Johnson kick), 7:23

AV—Apple Valley pass TD (kick good), 0:26

INDIVIDUAL STATS

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

Hunter Theis 10-17-99-2-0; TOTALS 10-17-99-2-0

RUSHING (ATT-YDS-TD-FUM)

Hunter Theis 9 (-12); Blake Fitcher 1-0; Tristan Graham 22-103-2; TOTALS 32-92-2-0

RECEIVING (REC-YDS-TD-FUM)

Luke Webber 2-10-1-0; Seth Johnson 5-63-1-0; Nolan Ginskey 2-27-0-0; Zach Haarstad 1(-1)-0-0; TOTALS 10-99-2-0

DEFENSE

Nolan Ginskey 2 TCKL-2 INT-1 DefTD; Blake Davison 11 TCKL; Blake Fitcher 6 TCKL; Jamie Lisowski 5 TCKL; Seth Johnson 4 TCKL; Darian Stransky 4 TCK-1 SCK

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PHOTOS BY JON WEISBROD