Owatonna out-muscles Hastings, christens new stadium with 42-7 victory

Taking the field for a literal once-and-a-lifetime opportunity, it would have been easy for the 16-to-18-year-old young men that make up the Owatonna football team to get swept up in the gravity of the moment.

It would have been easy for the players to lose focus amidst the simmering electricity that had been billowing throughout the community over the previous year-and-a-half leading up to the grand opening their sparkling 4,200-seat stadium.

It would have been easy, but it didn’t happen.

Instead, when Seth Johnson literally kicked off a new era of Owatonna football at 7:01 p.m. on Friday night at Federated Field and sent the ball sailing end-over-end and out of the back of the end zone, the Huskies wasted little time flexing their muscles. They scored on their first offensive possession, led 21-7 at halftime and eventually ran away with a 42-7 victory in front of an estimated 5,100 white-clad fans at the new Owatonna High School campus.

“It felt a little like state playoff games at Lakeville North,” Owatonna coach Jeff Williams said. “That’ what it reminded me of. It felt a lot bigger than a season-opener against a nonconference opponent…It was so hectic. I will relax for a bit tonight and I’ll try to soak in some of it. And that’s something I told the kids, make sure you do that. Soak everything in.”

The decision was also career win No. 200 for Owatonna head coach Jeff Williams.

“It about the coaches that I have on this staff,” Williams said when reflecting on the accomplishment. “It’s such a unique staff. I had two coaches that were in tears tonight just because of former players, grandparents of plats, just coming up and telling these guys how important that are as coaches to their kids and grandkids. I have assembled the best staff in the state of Minnesota. They love kids. They are technically really, really good. But they’re just great with kids.”

Taking full control of the offense from the get-go and standing tall in the pocket despite the steady waves of pressure sent his way by the aggressive Raiders’ defense, Jacob Ginskey rang up 250 passing yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions.

“We threw the ball very effectively when we could protect our quarterback,” Williams said. “And Hastings did some great things. They were going man-to-man. I mean, that touchdown pass right before half (that made it 21-7), we couldn’t protect it. He was getting hit in the chest and got the ball out. It was a gutsy effort by Jacob all night.”

A pair of Caleb Hullopeter touchdown grabs were bookended by TD catches from Owen Beyer and Rielly Kleeberger in the first and fourth quarters, respectively. Jacob’s younger brother, Nolan Ginskey, didn’t touch the ball until the second half, but led the team with 92 yards and five receptions while Beyer contributed 76 yards three grabs.

Hullopeter added four catches for 50 yards, snatching perfectly-spun pass that cut through the teeth of the Hastings defense from 20 yards out to help make it 21-7. Later, he scored the first of consecutive back-breaking touchdowns late in the third quarter that came less than three minutes apart. The second TD in the span came courtesy of a 3-yard run by Mitch Seykora with 2:06 on the clock and was directly set up by Blake Fitcher blocked punt.

The Huskies capped the scoring when Ginskey spun a little yarn into gold when he flicked a short pass into the hands of Rielly Kleeberger with one Hastings defender clinging to his waste and another in hot pursuit. Following a wave of blockers and turning up field near the home sideline, the senior displayed some nifty footwork and elusiveness before eventually broking into the end zone from 30 yards. Kleeberger finished the game with 50 yards of total offense on six touches (1 reception, 5 carries).

Brennen shared primary ball-carrying duties with Kleeberger and led the team with 36 yards on 10carries while scoring one touchdown.

As a team, Owatonna ran for 127 yards on 30 carries for a 4.2 per-carry average.

Defensively, Owatonna yielded just one of their seven first downs in the second half and held Hastings’ quarterback, Lukas Foss, to just 8-for-23 (39.1%) and 89 yards.

“I thought our coverage was good,” Williams said of his defense. “And they tackled well. Guys like Ethan Armstrong tonight, I mean, on that reverse they tried, he just stayed home lit that kid up…pretty impressive.”

The Raiders, who were thoroughly demoralized by the time the running clock was initiated in the middle of the fourth quarters, gained just 67 rushing yards on 24 carries.

Blake Davison led the Huskies with 12 tackles in his varsity debut. No other player finished with more than four stops.

---

OWATONNA FOOTBALL B-SQUAD & FRESHMEN RESULTS

_FRESHMEN

Owatonna 59, Hastings 28

• Owatonna’s defense picked off four passes, the first of which was returned 77 yards for a touchdown by Nolan Johnson to open the scoring. Carson Bock led the team with two interceptions.
• Kade Hullopeter scored three rushing touchdowns (5 yards, 12 yards, 29 yards) and racked up a game-high 186 rushing yards.
• Lee Smith scored on a 74-yard reception and a 7-yard run.
• Sam Dulas led the offensive line with 31 pancake blocks.

_B-SQUAD

Owatonna 40, Hastings 12