APPLE VALLEY — With the season on the line Jeff Williams didn’t hesitate.

He was going for two points. He was going for the win.

With his Owatonna football team having just converted a short touchdown run on fourth down to pull within a single point of Cretin-Derham Hall in overtime, the hall-of-fame head coach called timeout, met briefly with his offensive players near the home sideline and sent them back onto the field — his normal starting fullback, Blake Fitcher, lining up at quarterback and his star receiver, Nolan Ginskey, flanking him in the backfield at running back.

After scanning the defense and waiting for his teammates to lock into position, Fitcher calmly gathered the shotgun snap, stood tall in front of the oncoming rush, extended the ball forward as Ginskey crossed in front of him.

And there it was. The left defensive end squeezed toward the middle.

That was all Fitcher needed to see.

The Raiders had successfully bit on the read-option play and all he needed to do was deliver a clean handoff and put the ball — and the season — into Ginskey’s hands .

Good decision.

Without missing a step, Ginskey darted toward an opening near the right edge of the defense, turned the corner and stretched the ball across the goal line, tumbling safely into the end zone after colliding with C-DH linebacker Jaydn Harris inside the 1 yard line .

And that was it. Huskies win 22-21.

“There was no hesitation from the coaches — we were going for two,” Ginskey said. “To put all the faith in our offense — to put all the faith in me at Fitcher and the offensive line — that’s huge. We needed to make one play and we would be playing at the Bank. And that’s what we did.

“It’s the best moment of my life.”

Fitcher, who played quarterback for the Huskies at the sub-varsity level all the way through his sophomore year, said he obviously grasped the magnitude of the situation as he broke from the huddle and took the field prior to the eventual game-winning two-point conversion, but didn’t allow it to alter his mindset.

He was the epitome of cool, calm and collected.

“I felt totally comfortable back there (at quarterback),” Fitcher said. “I felt really calm on that two-point conversion. I wasn’t stressing…it was a perfect snap (from Reed Kath) and I made the right read and Nolan took it to the crib. I mean, Nolan is hands down the best player in the state — no one can top that — and I had all the faith in the world in that kid.”

The heart-pounding final play punctuated what was a back-and-forth defensive scrap between a pair of teams that required more than the standard 48 minutes and four quarters to decide a winner. Ultimately, both sides put themselves in position to win down the stretch and deserved to advance to the Class AAAAA state semifinals next Saturday in Minneapolis.

But there was only one ticket up for grabs, and it was the Huskies who had the ball last and seized the moment.

Owatonna is headed back to U.S. Bank.

“It’s crazy,” senior Zach Dahert said. “All of us have dreamed about this since we were in fourth grade and watching Jason Williamson and all those state title winning teams. Now it’s our turn. It’s incredible.”

Both teams led for decent stretches of regulation and played to a 14-14 deadlock after 48 minutes of regulation.

Cretin-Derham Hall — who started the season 1-4 only to reel off five consecutive  double-digit wins to qualify for Saturday’s state quarterfinal showdown as the champions of Section 4-AAAAA — scored first in overtime on a short J’Dale Thompson run, its kicker drilling the extra point in the wet conditions to give the Raiders a 21-14 lead.

Owatonna then got its crack on offense, the 10-yard distance to the paydirt cut in half on first down when Fitcher blasted through a hole and crashed forward for a 5-yard gain. Three plays and four yards later, the senior took a direct snap on fourth down and burrowed his way across the goal line to draw the Huskies within 21-20.

Hunter Theis completed 11 of 20 passes for 156 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions. Ginskey caught a team-high six passes for 81 yards,

Zach Haarstad snatched a 19-yard touchdown in the first half and finished with three grabs for 32 yards.

Tristan Graham scored his 12th touchdown of the season on a 1-yard plunge in the second quarter to help give Owatonna a 14-7 at the break and led the Huskies with 88 rushing yards.

Luke Webber — who was hobbled by a leg injury and left the game in the third quarter — intercepted a pass and hauled-in a key 35-yard reception in the first half.

In all, the Huskies accumulated 302 yards of total offense.

Darian Stransky spearheaded the defense, racking up a career-high 12 tackles and assisting on a pivotal sack in the middle of the fourth quarter following a 25-minute delay due to a medical emergency declared in the press box. Blake Davison and Blake Fitcher added 10 and eight tackles, respectively.

Davison now has exactly 100 tackles on the season.

With the victory, the Huskies (11-0) advance to the Class AAAAA state quarterfinals for the first time since 2018 and will play Alexandria (9-2) on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. in Minneapolis. The Cardinals — who hail from the ultra-competitive Section 8-AAAAA — have successfully eliminated a pair of previously undefeated team in back-to-back weeks, defeating rival Moorhead in the section title game and taking down Robbinsdale Armstrong, 17-14, on Saturday afternoon.