Huskies stun Spartans with flawless fourth

Owatonna football earned its signature win of the 2025 season by stunning Rochester Mayo 21-20 at home last week despite trailing 20-7 in the fourth quarter.

Rochester Mayo owned the first three quarters of the game, but the Huskies found some late momentum and never looked back en route to the upset win.

“To have these kids believe that they can go out there and knock off who will probably be the No. 1 seed in our section. To know that they’re good enough to do that… hopefully our kids understand that they’re just every bit as good as Rochester Mayo and we can go toe-to-toe with the best teams in the section and we can make a run at this thing. That’s what I want them to get out of this win,” said Owatonna Head Coach Jeff Williams.

The Huskies were down, but never out and showed incredible grit behind some stellar special teams play and a bit of quarterback magic.

Owatonna initially fell behind 10-0 in the second quarter after the Spartans cashed in on a 70-yard touchdown pass and a 25-yard field goal.

However, the team salvaged a late touchdown on a 25-yard hook up from quarterback Aedann Tackmann to wide receiver Cooper Routh to enter halftime down by three at 10-7.

Rochester Mayo returned to second-half action by scoring an early touchdown on a 10-yard pass with 7:41 left in the third quarter and looked primed to earn the win late after adding a 44-yard insurance field goal with eight minutes left in the game.

However, Owatonna saved its best football for the late stages of the game and swung the momentum in the team’s favor behind a big special teams play.

With just 5:13 remaining, Rochester Mayo lined up to punt pinned deep in its own territory, but a bad snap and a strong rush resulted in Carson Bock blocking the Spartans’ punt and creating a loose ball that teammate Cooper Aul recovered in the end zone for a touchdown.

The score made it a one-possession game for the Huskies down 20-14.

Rochester Mayo fielded the ensuing kickoff, but Owatonna’s defense stood strong to force a quick punt.

Rochester Mayo’s special teams’ nightmares continued when a low snap dribbled to the Spartans’ punter and resulted in him being sacked at the team’s own 27-yard line.

Owatonna took over just outside the red zone and worked the ball down the field until the team found itself on the Spartans’ two-yard line in a fourth-and-goal scenario with just under a minute remaining.

The Huskies’ biggest play of the game saw the team give up its best scoring chance to date when a false start moved Owatonna back to the seven-yard line – a significantly different play-calling scenario for the Huskies.

Yet, Owatonna offensive coordinator Matt Skala was undeterred.

The first-year play caller dialed up a play-action passing play for Tackmann but the result was far from anything Skala had envisioned.

What was supposed to be a quick pass to running back Tristan Graham in the flat became a nail-biting rush for Tackmann, who evaded a strong rush and dove between two defenders to reach the end zone and score the game-winning touchdown with 51 seconds left.

“It’s a play that we’ve been repping for a while. We snuck our tailback out into the flat and we thought he might be wide open, but we had some pressure, and Aedan made a heck of a play,” said Skala.

The Spartans had one final possession but were unable to come away with points after another strong stand by the Huskies’ defense.

Owatonna’s big night was also a major success off the field as the team raised $10,000 for its Huskies Tackle Cancer initiative.

The win moved Owatonna to 3-4 on the season as the team prepares for its final game at home against Apple Valley on Wednesday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m.

Player Stats

Passing

#7 Aedan Tackmann – 5/13 63 yards 1 TD

Rushing

#20 Tristan Graham – 32 att. 153 yards; #26 Zachary Roesner – 4 att. 40 yards; #7 Tackmann – 3 att. 2 yards 1 TD; #2 Nolan Rolloff – 2 att. -2 yards

Receiving

#15 Cooper Routh – 3 rec. 56 yards 1 TD; #26 Roesner – 1 rec. 5 yards; #2 Rolloff – 1 rec. 2 yards