Huskies soar past Rockets 56-6 on homecoming

The Owatonna Huskies picked up their third straight win last week by dominating the Rochester John Marshall (RJM) Rockets 56-6 on homecoming night, electrifying the home crowd at Federated Field and keeping the team tied for first place in the Northstar – South-Maroon Division.

Owatonna has put its conference foes, and all other Class AAAAA teams, on notice recently by outscoring opponents 131-27 over the three-game winning stretch.

It didn’t take long for the Huskies to open the scoring against RJM as the team built a 7-0 lead on its opening possession of the game.

After forcing a three-and-out, Owatonna began at its own 46-yard line and moved quickly down the field to the Rockets’ 27-yard line, where runningback Kade Hullopeter started the scoring frenzy.

Hullopeter took a handoff to the left side of the line and followed fullback Zachary Roesner through the hole, but as space began to constrict, he used his vision to find an alternative path.

A cutback lane opened up toward the right side of the field, where Hullopeter ran right between multiple defenders to reach the home sideline and sprint into the endzone for the opening score of the game.

Another quick defensive stop forced an RJM punt and gave the Huskies and opportunity to add to their lead with a drive beginning at their own 24-yard line.

Owatonna put together a few chunk gains to reach the Rockets’ 41-yard line before Hullopeter broke through with another game-changing rush.

This time, the senior took a handoff to the right, bounced outside and was finally brought down at the RJM 11 to give Owatonna a quick redzone appearance.

The Huskies kept running with the hot hand, allowing Hullopeter three rushing attempts to score from the 11 going in, but RJM’s defense stood tall to force a fourth down from the six-yard line.

With the drive on the line, Owatonna put the ball in quarterback Aedan Tackmann’s hands for a passing play.

Tackmann rolled right and put a dime into the hands of wide receiver Lee Smith in the back corner of the endzone for the touchdown to go up 14-0 in the first quarter.

While all of the momentum seemed to be in Owatonna’s favor, RJM went to work trying to take some control of the game on its next possession.

The Rockets began their next drive on their own 38, but worked quickly down the field and found themselves in plus territory as time expired in the first quarter.

On the first play of the next quarter following the brief intermission, RJM scored on a 32-yard passing connection that broke through the middle of Owatonna’s secondary to cut the lead to 14-6, after the Huskies managed to block the extra-point attempt.

RJM chose the right moment to strike again by opting for the onside kick and caught the Huskies on their heels by recovering a live ball that bounced and struck an unprepared Owatonna athlete.

What should have been a chance to turn the tide of the game quickly became a nightmare for the Rockets when the team’s first play of the ensuing drive resulted in an Owatonna interception that was returned to midfield.

After gaining one yard on the first play of the drive, Owatonna’s Tackmann decided to test the Rockets’ secondary by laying out a perfect pass to teammate Cooper Routh, who separated from his man and caught the ball in stride to take the Huskies down to the Rockets’ two-yard line.

Hullopeter would go on to score on a dive up the middle to put Owatonna up 21-6 with 10:24 remaining in the first half.

Another quick RJM three-and-out and a solid punt return by Huskies’ senior captain Nolan Rolloff put Owatonna back in scoring position under a minute later at the RJM 22.

The Huskies opened with a well-timed screen pass to Hullopeter that brought the team down to the eight for another goal-to-go opportunity.

A holding penalty knocked the Huskies back 10 yards, but Hullopter gained everything back on the next play by working his way through multiple defenders down to the Rockets’ four-yard line.

He would go on to score on the next play to give Owatonna a 28-6 lead with 7:47 left in the half.

A perfect kickoff by Owatonna’s Canaan Zinter pinned the Rockets inside their own 10 on the following play and set up the team’s defense to put up points of their own.

As RJM’s quarterback dropped into the endzone, the Huskies’ pass rush swarmed with Sam Dulas knocking the ball loose and teammate Josiah Thompson recovering the fumble in the endzone for the touchdown.

The score put the Huskies up 35-6 with 7:30 to play in the second.

Another RJM turnover resulted in advantageous field position for the Huskies and set the team up for its final touchdown of the first half on a one-yard quarterback sneak by Tackmann to send Owatonna into halftime leading 42-6.

The Huskies went on to add two touchdowns in the second half with many depth players taking the field to gain experience during the blowout.

Tackmann’s younger brother, Arik, took the field as the team’s quarterback for the second half and put on a display by tossing a 77-yard touchdown pass to Rolloff and scoring on a six-yard scamper to end the game at 56-6 for Owatonna.

The Huskies’ next matchup will be a home game against Northfield on Friday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m.

The Raiders enter the matchup tied with Owatonna for first place in the division at 4-1 overall and 3-0 in conference play.

Player Stats

Owatonna

Passing

#13 Arik Tackmann – 4/5 131 yards 1 TD 1 Int.; #7 Aedan Tackmann – 7/10 111 yards 1 TD

Rushing

#21 Kade Hullopeter – 8 att. 79 yards 3 TD; #20 Lance Wagner – 10 att. 61 yards; #22 Carson Bock – 6 att. 59 yards; #6 Noah Calhoun – 4 att. 28 yards; #13 Tackmann – 1 att. 6 yards 1 TD; #7 Tackmann – 1 att. 3 yards 1 TD; N/A Ben Herzog 1 att. 3 yards

Receiving

#2 Nolan Rolloff – 1 rec. 77 yards 1 TD; #1 Cooper Routh – 2 rec. 58 yards; #8 Lee Smith – 4 rec. 39 yards 1 TD; #3 Lucas Ginskey – 1 rec. 21 yards; #81 Brendan Klecker – 1 rec. 19 yards; #21 Hullopeter – 1 rec. 14 yards; #11 Jackson Holder – 1 rec. 14 yards