As Northfield lined up for a potential game-tying 2-point conversion late in the fourth quarter on Friday night, something clicked in Drew Kretlow’s head.

The Owatonna middle linebacker had seen this before. He had seen the Raiders line up in the exact formation that was unfolding in front of his very eyes across the line of scrimmage, but it wasn’t on the field where he had initially detected it. It was actually during his weekly film-study session when Kretlow first witnessed Northfield’s familiar pre-snap formation and instantly recognized what the Raiders were going to attempt to execute before the ball was even snapped.

So, as the grainy footage that had lit up his computer monitor just days prior began to materialize between the lines, Kretlow remained calm despite the heightened gravity of the situation swirling to a climactic crescendo at the OHS Stadium in a Big Southeast District tilt.

“I had watched film,” Kretlow said after the game. “It was the exact same play they ran on the goal line against New Prague last week.”

Keeping his gaze fixated on the right side of Northfield’s formation as the Raiders broke from the huddle, Kretlow crept a few steps closer to the line to get a better angle at his eventual attack vector and immediately drifted to his left as the ball was snaped.

Accurately diagnosing the Raiders’ Veer Option play steering toward the right edge, Kretlow instinctively crashed through a gaping hole shaped by Northfield’s pulling blockers and didn’t hesitate as he streaked into the backfield, smashing into Kamden Kaiser.

And just like that, Kretlow had blown up the play four yards behind the line of scrimmage and abruptly stunted Kaiser’s forward-momentum, allowing teammate Mitch Seykora to flash in from the outside and help bring Northfield’s slippery quarterback to the ground.

During the game’s fateful defensive stand, meticulous preparation had met exceptional execution and the Huskies were ultimately rewarded with a hard-fought, albeit occasionally untidy, 21-19 victory on Homecoming night in Owatonna.

“I saw Kaiser go out and I knew I had inside-out on him,” Kretlow said. “After that, all I needed to do was just wrap up.”

“It looked like we might have had something coming off our left edge as well, which prevented their quarterback from being able to leak out to his right flank and then Kret was in position to make a play,” added Owatonna coach Jeff Williams. “Momentum was starting to creep their way and that was a huge play to put us in position to salt the game away with a little bit of a running attack.”

With the crowd bursting to life following the Raiders’ failed conversion, Owatonna still had some work to do despite having decisively wrestled momentum back to the home sideline. There was 3 minutes, 39 seconds remaining on the clock and the Raiders had all three of their timeouts to use. As the Huskies took over at their own 35-yard line after the ensuing kickoff bounced out of bounds short of the end zone, they needed at least two first downs to bleed enough clock to escape with the win.

They did one better.

Owatonna inched forward on its first three plays of the drive — gaining 4, 5 and 3 yards on consecutive runs to initially move the chains — before Kretlow landed the knockout blow by bulldozing ahead for back-to-back 14-yard runs, leaving only three consecutive kneel-downs to officially wrap things up.

“Once I got in there on that last drive, it was all on the o-line,” Kretlow said. “It was all on them. They had it blocked up perfect and I just hit the holes. It was beautiful.”

Kretlow gained 34 of his 59 rushing yards on the game’s final drive and was a punishing compliment to tailback Conner Grems, who finished with a game-high 105 yards on 25 carries. Both also scored one touchdown.

Owatonna (3-2 overall, 3-2 Big SE Red Division) conquered the opening stanza — beginning the game with a devastating 16-play, 80-yard scoring march that ended with a 17-yard Justin Gleason touchdown run on an end-around at the 3:35-mark — and took a 14-0 lead when Grems escaped around the right edge for a 24-yard jaunt on the first offensive snap after the Huskies recovered a Kaiser fumble with just under a minute on the clock. Owatonna’s advantage eventually ballooned to 21-0 on a Kretlow 4-yard touchdown run with 1:06 left before halftime.

However, despite building a three-touchdown cushion and holding Northfield to negative yardage in the first half, Owatonna was unable to twist the dagger after missing a field goal and losing a fumble in the red zone on consecutive possessions in the second quarter, both of which loomed large as Northfield’s Cameron Mellgren escaped for a 95-yard touchdown on a kickoff return with just 55 seconds left before the break.

“You’re up 21-nothing with a minute left in the first half and then you let them back into the game,” Williams said. “And that takes the wind out of the sails. I don’t know if there is such a thing as momentum in the NFL where guys are pros, but these guys are high school kids and those things are going to happen and you need to learn to fight through back from the adversity.”

On its second possession of the third quarter, the Raiders finally broke through on offense and found the end zone when Kaiser flipped a pass to Charles Monaghan in the flat for an 18-yard pitch-and-catch touchdown with 4:48 on the clock. The TD marked Northfield’s first completion of the game and drew the Raiders within 21-13, the gap remaining at eight points after Owen Beyer leaked through a wall of Northfield blockers and swatted the extra point to the grass.

With OHS unable to muster a reliable passing attack as the second half slogged forward, the Raiders answered by stacking the box with upwards of 10 defenders and effectively shut down the Huskies’ previously-potent ground attack. Before the game’s final drive, Owatonna had netted just 21 rushing yards on eight attempts during four offensive possessions in the second half.

Despite his deep stable of pass-catchers consistently creating separation from their defenders, Jacob Ginskey had an uncharacteristically off night, overthrowing a few open receivers in the third quarter and bouncing a couple throws in the fourth. For the game, he completed 5 of 11 passes for a career-low 44 yards.

“Give (Northfield) credit,” Williams said. “We knew that they were going to make some adjustments to our run game in the second half, and the answer is we have to be able to throw the ball a little bit, and we did not do that effectively tonight. That’s why we didn’t put points on the board in the second half. We have to be able to throw the play-actions, the vertical threats, things like that when they have nine, 10 guys in the box trying to take away the run game. We failed to capitalize tonight.”

After the Huskies’ fourth punt of the second half, Northfield took possession at the OHS 22-yard line with 5:56 left in the game. The Raiders gained 13 yards on the first play of the drive and then converted a key 3rd-and-long when Monaghan scampered 30 yards across midfield on a screen pass to penetrate deep into Owatonna territory.  

Leaning on its sturdy offensive line, Northfield (3-2, 2-2) — which did not have a starting lineman lighter than 245 pounds — racked up 23 yards on the next two plays and found the end zone when Jacob Geiger hauled-in a 17-yard pass from Kaiser on a dangerous throw into tight coverage near the right corner of the end zone. The pass initially appeared to have been intercepted by Gleason, but slipped through his hands, bounced off his chest and landed directly into Geiger’s awaiting arms, the Northfield receiver catching the ball sitting on his backside with 3:39 on the clock.

The heart-pounding finish starkly conflicted what was another thoroughly dominant first half performance by the Huskies. Owatonna — which built a 34-0 lead over Austin in Week 4 — held the Raiders to negative-23 yards, rang up two sacks and forced one turnover in the first 24 minutes, sending the game careening toward was appeared to be a lop-sided finish as the beleaguered Raiders fell victim to the Huskies’ suffocating defensive pressure.

“It was really good to get some of those three-and-outs,” Kretlow said. “It’s always nice to get the offense back on the field and get the blue machine rolling. It was a great team effort on defense.”

Torrin Smith recorded his team-leading fifth sack of the season and Seykora forced one fumble.

Climbing back to positive net yards in the third quarter, Northfield ended the game with 159 yards of total offense — 182 of which came in the second half — and accumulated 107 yards on the ground.

Kaiser completed each of his passes in the final two quarters and ended 5-for-16 for 75 yards and two passing touchdowns.

IMPLICATIONS: With the victory, Owatonna moves into second place in the unofficial Section 1-5A standings, one spot behind Rochester Mayo and one spot ahead of Northfield with a 3-1 record against sectional opponents.

The top two seeds in the tournament, which commences roughly a week after the final game of the regular season on Oct. 19, earn an opening round bye and an automatic home game in the semifinals.

UP NEXT: The Huskies travel to John Drews Field to take on winless Rochester John Marshall on Friday. After failing to score in their first four games to open the season, the Rockets (0-5, 0-5) finally got on the board in Week 5 in a 55-6 loss to New Prague.

AROUND THE RED DIVISION:

No. 1 Mankato West 28, No. 7 Rochester Mayo 24

New Prague 56, Rochester John Marshall 6

Rochester Century 20, Austin 7