Huskies survive against Panthers in home-opener

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            OWATONNA 16, Rochester Century 14

Last week, the Owatonna football team left the field feeling pretty good after an often-explosive loss to Rochester Mayo.

This week, it was the opposite in essentially every regard.

Yes, the Huskies pulled out the victory — and they showed some genuine grit and toughness in key situations along the way — but there was little to feel overwhelmingly excited about following Week 2’s less-than-spectacular performance against the inexperienced Panthers.

Thanks in large part to some inconsistent tackling, Owatonna surrendered several big plays and allowed the Panthers to stick around in a game they probably had little business keeping close. With a roster chock full of mainly sophomores, CHS unofficially completed just 5 of 26 passes for less than 100 yards against Owatonna’s air-tight secondary. The Panthers stayed in the game by finding the end zone on runs of 42 and 85 yards on back-to-back offensive snaps in the third quarter.

“Our pass defense was great,” OHS coach Jeff Williams said. “It’s been tackling that has really been the bane of our existence so far this season. It’s the periodic inability to bring a guy to the ground that we need to clean up. We just need to get better.”

Ultimately, though, no one is going to take away the ‘W’ from the home-standing Huskies and Friday’s victory will certainly aid them in the long run as they chase the Spartans for the No. 2 seed in Section 1-5A, at least for now. Mayo beat Northfield on Saturday to move to 2-0 overall and 2-0 against sectional opponents.

“In the end, we won this game, so the sun will come up a little brighter tomorrow morning,” Williams added. “But we have some work to do. We have some things we need to fix.”

Trailing 14-10 after three quarters, the Huskies answered Century’s second long TD scamper by manufacturing its best drive of the game, capping the 10-play, 52-yard march with a Dylan Maas 9-yard score with 10 minutes, 6 seconds on the clock. The possession started with 2:50 remaining in the third and featured a key Bogen-to-Collin Vick connection and was kept alive when Century jumped offsides on 4th-and-short deep in Panthers' territory.

Following a succession of punts by both teams, the Panthers took the ball near midfield trailing 16-14 with exactly 2:01 left in the game. On the third play of the drive, Century penetrated the red zone when Matt Haun hooked up with Damian Gerads for a 32-yard catch-and-run on a slant pattern that knifed through the teeth of Owatonna’s defense.

The Huskies, though, didn’t flinch and forced three straight incomplete passes before clinching the game by collapsing the pocket and bringing down Haun for a sack on fourth down. Drew Kretlow was one of the first of what was a host of players to get to the quarterback.

“We put our defense in a bind there after punting into the wind and of course gave them great field position,” Williams said of Rochester’s final fruitless drive. “But the defense stepped up. There were a few instances where they broke a little, but our defense made some plays tonight.”

Undoubtably, the biggest play of the game came when linebacker Luke Wottreng intercepted an errant pass and raced down the left sideline for a touchdown to break the seal and give Owatonna a 7-0 lead at halftime. The senior linebacker was in perfect position to snatch the wobbly pass after Haun released the ball with two OHS defenders draped all over him just outside the pocket.

Wottreng also had a sack for an 8-yard loss and two tackles-for-loss.

“He made some plays tonight and that pick-six was obviously huge,” Williams said. “There were a couple times where their quarterback was throwing the ball away and we had guys in the neighborhood, so when he threw it right to Luke that was a big play, a big momentum changer.”

Drew Henson continued to impress with his big leg, drilling a 44-yard field goal in the third quarter on a drive that directly followed the Panthers’ first touchdown. He also smashed three touchbacks.

 

A week after an ultra-productive first career start, Taylor Bogen was largely held in check through the air —completing just 7 of 19 passes for 69 yards and one interception — but led the Huskies with 97 rushing yards on 17 attempts.

THE SLANT

The Huskies failed to finish numerous drives inside CHS territory and scuffled to find much offensive rhythm while once again giving up far too many big plays on the other side of the ball. However, Owatonna can take pride in the way its defensive secondary played throughout the entire game and how difficult they made it for Century to complete even a single pass, let alone gain any consistency through the air.

NOTES

In the first half, Owatonna turned the ball over on downs twice inside the CHS 35 yard line...The Panthers held Huskies’ No. 1 tailback, Dylan Maas, to two or fewer yards on 11 carries…Owatonna forced seven punts…A week after being hampered by eight penalties, OHS cleaned things up and was whistled for just two infraction, none of which came in the second half.

Owatonna: 1-1 overall, 1-1 Big Southeast District (place); 1-1 vs. Section 1-5A

Rochester Century: 0-2 overall, 0-1 Big Southeast District (place); 0-1 vs. Section 1-5A

OWATONNA LEADERS

Passing: Taylor Bogen 7-for-19, 69 YDS-0 TD-1 INT

Rushing: Bogen 17 carries-97 YDS; Dylan Maas 22 carries-62 yards

Receiving: Ayden Walter 3 receptions-32 yards; Nick Williams 2 receptions-18 yards; Collin Vick 2 receptions-19 yards

Defense: Luke Wottreng INT for TD-1 sack-2 TFL; Drew Kretlow 1 sack

Special teams: Drew Henson 1-for-1 FG (44 YDS); 1-for-2 XP

UP NEXT

Week 3: at No. 1 Mankato West (2-0 overall, 2-0 Red Division)

The Scarlets: The top-ranked team in Class 5A is loaded across the board and will be the best team Owatonna sees all season. They thumped New Prague, 41-7, in Week 2 and have out-scored their first two opponents by a combined score of 102-7.

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Photo Album (public Facebook post): https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10100463637116034&set=pcb.10100463637450364

Story and photos by Jon Weisbrod

Statistics courtesy of Mark Sebring