OWATONNA — It was a long night for the Owatonna football team.

But it’s also a long season.

Breaking in 15 new starters, introducing a new offensive system and playing its first game under its new defensive coordinator, the Owatonna football team lost, 28-7, to a speedy and upstart Mankato East squad on Friday night at Federated Field in a Northstar District South crossover contest in Owatonna.

The loss was the first ever at Federated Field since opening in 2023 and the second in a row for the Huskies dating back to last season’s defeat to Alexandria in the state semifinals in Minneapolis. OHS is now 12-1 at its new home.

As for Friday night, it wasn’t pretty.

The Huskies — who also lost for the first time to open the season since 2022 —  were whistled for five crucial penalties, dropped three passes, were stuffed in the end zone for a safety, surrendered more than 250 rushing yards and committed several uncharacteristic mental mistakes.

Though frustrated with the rare loss, Owatonna Hall-of-Fame head coach, Jeff Williams, was far more pragmatic when addressing the small contingency of media near the home sideline moments after the game.

“Too many big plays,” Williams said of his defense that allowed touchdowns of 50, 88 and 67 yards. “A breakdown here, a breakdown there and all the sudden it’s an 80-yard touchdown…We will go look at the tape and, you know, I think we have the right guys on the field — we just gotta get them coached up.”

The Cougars scored on their first drive to open the game — grabbing a 7-0 lead when sophomore quarterback Kellen Willaert hooked up with Lucas Gustafson for a 50-yard catch-and-run — and went ahead 13-0 when Division II college recruit, Blake Kamphoff, busted loose for an 89-yard touchdown with 7 minutes, 59 seconds left before the break.

The Cougars (1-0) added to their lead and built a three-score advantage heading into the break when Logan Kleist capped an ultra-efficient 8-play, 95-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown scamper. The final five plays of the possession went for first downs.

Owatonna’s lone scoring march came on its first possession of the second half when Aiden Tackmann found Bentley Arvig from 17 yards out, temporarily igniting the capacity crowd at Federated Field and drawing OHS within 12 points 19-7 with 8:44 left in the third quarter. It was Tackmann’s first career touchdown pass and Arvig’s first career TD reception. The drive was set up by a 57-yard kick return by Vincente Chavez.

Making his first career varsity start, Tackmann completed 12 or 25 passes for 99 yards with one touchdown and zero interceptions. He was sacked three times.

Fresh off a season in which he earned all-district honors with just over 1,000 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns, Graham turned 21 carries into 90 yards for a 4.3 yards-per-carry average. He had a 9-yard touchdown called back due to holding in the third quarter.

Though he dropped one pass, Arvig was Tackmann’s favorite target, catching six passes for 60 yards. Nolan Rolloff added three grabs for 20 yards.

Churning behind its imposing offensive line, Mankato East finished with exactly 275 rushing yards, most of which came from the two-headed monster of Blake Kamphoff and Logan Kleist. Kamphoff — who sliced through the Owatonna defense for an 88-yard scamper in the second quarter — led the way with 134 yards while Kleist needed just seven carries to reach 109 yards, scoring on TD runs of 10 and 67 yards.

FINAL STATS