NORTHFIELD — Entering its contest against Northfield at Memorial Field, the Owatonna football team had seen its fair share of strapping, big-armed and hyper-talented quarterbacks throughout the first five weeks of the season.

And then they had to deal with J.T. Graupmann.

Spinning darts, floating dimes, rocketing strikes and hitting his targets in-stride with pinpoint accuracy, Friday’s pivotal midseason showdown between a pair of district rivals quickly transformed into a singular quarterbacking showcase as Graupmann and the Raiders ran away with a 28-7 victory in front of a packed homecoming crowd in Northfield on Friday night.

Graupmann — a 6-foot-2, 210-pound high-level college pitching prospect — completed his first five passes of the contest and rarely misfired all night, finishing 14 of 22 for 229 yards to go with two touchdowns and one interception.

“We knew he was a gunslinger,” Owatonna coach, Jeff Williams, said of Graupmann. “He put a lot of pressure on our defense and made some really nice throws. They throw at times when you might not necessarily expect them to throw and they did a nice job in the pass game.”

Northfield (4-2 overall, 3-1 District) sophomore tailback, Sam Harner, also caused the Huskies fits, rushing for 122 yards and one touchdown while adding one reception for 29 yards. Prior to Friday night, he had not rushed for more than 41 yards in any single contest all season.

“We have to shore up the edge (in the run game),” Williams said. “I thought we did a nice job from the second quarter on, but I thought they really exploited our edges in the first quarter and we had to do some things to change what we were doing out there to compensate for that.”

Owatonna, which trailed 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and 20-0 at halftime, was unable to gain traction on offense and never gained a consistent rhythm on either side of the ball as Northfield’s advantage slowly ballooned throughout the contest. After Harner zipped around the edge for a 4-yard touchdown run and Graupmann found his receiver on the conversion, the gap swelled to 28-0 with 3 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Aedan Tackmann’s 1-yard toss to Will Halverson on the first play of the fourth quarter accounted for Owatonna’s lone score of the contest.

With the loss, the Huskies drop to 2-4 overall and 2-2 in district action with just a pair of contests remaining in the regular season, both of which will be played at Federated Field in Owatonna.

UP NEXT: vs. Rochester Mayo (4-2, 3-1), Friday, 7 p.m.

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NORTHFIELD 28, OWATONNA 7

FIRST QUARTER

N-Ben Ims 31 pass from JT Graupmann (kick good), 7:32

N-Julian Vazquez 14 pass from Graupmann (kick good), 2:26

SECOND QUARTER

N-Kian Morsching 22 field goal, 8:52

N-Morsching 33 field goal, 0:09

THIRD QUARTER

N-Sam Harner 4 run (pass good), 3:21

FOURTH QUARTER

O-Will Halverson 1 pass from Aedan Tackmann (kick good), 11:55

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