KASSON — After tussling for nearly 48 minutes against a capable, physical and steadfast opponent, the injury-plagued Owatonna football team found itself trailing by seven points and facing a 4th-and-7 from just outside the red zone with roughly 75 seconds on the clock.

The snap, good.

The setup, good.

The throw, good.

The receiver, open.

The ball, through the finger-tips.

As the spiraling pigskin slipped through the outstretched grasp of Caleb Hullopeter and rolled harmlessly out of the back of the end zone, the Huskies had exhausted their final gasp against Kasson-Mantorville in a Big Southeast District crossover game on Wednesday night.

Three snaps and two futile OHS timeouts later, and that was it, the KoMets had their win, 28-21.

“We had a shot at the end,” Owatonna coach Jeff Williams said moments after the game. “It was on the fingertips. It was a good pass and, you know, it was almost a good catch. We really had a chance. We had a chance to get that two-point play to potentially win the game.”

The dramatic, albeit disappointing, finish was merely the final note in a contest that featured little defensive harmony and was punctuated by an explosive rushing effort by K-M’s Broc Barwald. The senior running back rang up a staggering 299 yards on just 13 carries, directly answering Owatonna’s first two scoring drives with long touchdown runs to tie the game, and perhaps more importantly, instantly pump life back into the KoMets’ sideline when they needed it most. Both of his scoring jaunts in the opening half came on the first snap of the possession and spanned 68 and 80 yards, respectively.

The Huskies took their final lead of the contest with 3 minutes, 16 seconds left in the third quarter when Conner Grems pounded into the end zone from two yards out to score his third touchdown of the contest and 13th of the season. The senior — who has found paydirt eight times in the last three games alone — carried Owatonna’s offense for long stretches, finishing with a career-high 44 carries for 183 yards. Not only did he account for all three of Owatonna’s touchdowns, but he also took several snaps out of the Wildcat formation and zipped a key 19-yard pass to Jack Strom on third down at the K-M 21-yard line to keep the Huskies’ final scoring drive alive.

After being relatively contained following the explosive opening quarter, Barwald detonated once again in the fourth, scoring the game-tying touchdown from 24 yards out less than two minutes into the fourth and putting his team ahead for the first time, and cementing the final score, with a 1-yard plunge with 6:52 on the clock.

The game-deciding TD capped a drive that started at the KoMets’ 31-yard line following a Grems fumble.

Barwald had 106 yards in the fourth quarter alone, breaking loose for runs of 52, 24 and 22 yards in the stanza. For the game, he had six runs of 20 or more yards and three runs of at least 50 yards.

“A couple Fullback Traps is what got us early,” Williams said. “He popped a few big ones, and that hurt. We couldn’t contain him.”

The loss marks the first time the Huskies failed to finish above .500 in the regular season since 2006 when they also finished 4-4. That season, the Huskies went on the road and lost their opening round postseason game to finish 4-5.

This year, Owatonna was handed the second seed in the six-team Section 1-5A tournament by virtue of its 3-1 record against sectional opponents and head-to-head victory over No. 3-seeded Northfield in a game that took place less than a month ago, but probably feels like it happened last year.

In a tumultuous six-day span to end the regular season, Owatonna not only lost a pair of games to stumble back to .500, but added two-way starter Owen Beyer, No. 1 quarterback Jacob Ginskey and pass-rushing specialist Montrell Powell to the list of walking wounded.

Beyer’s injury is a lower-body issue and appears to be the most serious ailment of the trio, but Williams stopped short of ruling him out for the remainder of the postseason.

“Not necessarily,” he said when asked if Beyer was done for the season. “We will have to see.”

With the extra rest, Ginskey and Powell are both expected to play in the section semifinal round, but will be evaluated on a day-to-day basis and their availability will be re-assessed following the four-day layoff.

“We have to figure out who we can get back (for the postseason),” Williams said. “We will have four days off. We will come back in on Monday, fine-tune some things and try to figure out who we can put on the field, because obviously we have an awful lot of people in the M.A.S.H. unit right now, and that’s really hamstrung us.”

NOTES: Fresh off an impressive win over a traditional Class 5A powerhouse and entering the postseason with a 6-2 record, the KoMets earned a No. 2 in the ultra-balanced Section 1-4A bracket that also includes top-seeded Stewartville (8-0), No. 3 Byron (6-2) and No. 4 Winona (6-2). The KoMets lost to Stewartville and Byron and beat Winona…The Huskies did not score for the game’s final 15 minutes, 16 seconds…Owatonna’s Drew Henson pinned the KoMets inside the 12-yard line with a pair of well-placed punts in the first half…Owatonna’s final offensive possession that ultimately ended with an incomplete pass on 4th-and-7 spanned 12 plays…The Huskies’ second scoring drove was set up by a short K-M punt that took a wicked bounce back toward the line of scrimmage and netted just two yards.

SECTION 1-5A TOURNAMENT MATCHUPS

Bye: No. 1 Rochester Mayo (7-1); No. 2 Owatonna (4-4)

Tuesday, Oct. 25 (quarterfinals, 7 p.m.): No. 6 Rochester John Marshall (4-4) at No. 3 Northfield (5-3); No. 5 Austin (2-6) at No. 4 Rochester Century (2-6)

Saturday, Oct. 29 (semifinals, 7 p.m.): Austin/Century at Mayo; JM/Northfield at Owatonna

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KASSON-MANTORVILLE 28, OWATONNA 21

FIRST QUARTER

O—Conner Grems 8 run (Drew Henson kick), 3:48; *7-0 Huskies

KM—Broc Barwald 68 run (Lars Ingram kick), 3:33; *Tied 7-7

SECOND QUARTER

O—Grems 2 run (Henson kick), 8:42; *14-7 Huskies

KM—Barwald 80 run (Ingram kick), 8:29; *Tied 14-14

THIRD QUARTER

O—Grems 2 run (Henson kick), 3:16; *21-14 Huskies

FOURTH QUARTER

KM—Barwald 24 run (Ingram kick), 10:57; *Tied 21-21

KM—Barwald 1 run (Ingram), 6:52; *28-21 KoMets

INDIVIDUAL STATS

OWATONNA RUSHING—Conner Grems 42-183-3-1; Rielly Kleeberger 4-18; Collin Vick 1-2; Drew Kretlow 7-16; Noah Truelson 1(-1); TOTALS 55-223-3-1

OWATONNA PASSING—Truelson 4-8-18-0-0; Grems 1-1-19-0-0; TOTALS 5-9-37-0-0

OWATONNA RECEIVING—Hullopeter 2-10; Justin Gleason 2-8; Jack Strom 1-19; TOTALS 5-37