O-What’s-Happening?

The Huskies had another frustrating Friday against a Mankato school last week when Owatonna fell 35-7 on the road at Mankato West in the team’s second consecutive loss to start the season.

Head coach Jeff Williams’ team once again had its bright spots during a tough game, but another sub-par performance fell short of the legendary skipper’s expectations.

The game belonged to Mankato West quite literally from the starting whistle when the Scarlets returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown to quickly go up 7-0.

The Huskies slow start on offense resulted in a three-and-out in its opening possession and set up Mankato West with advantageous field position.

Scarlets’ quarterback Osborne Lorenz quickly guided the team down the field before plunging into the end zone from one yard out to give his team a 14-0 lead less than three minutes into the game.

The Huskies’ offense struggled to sustain drives and found itself stuck on the sidelines for most of the first quarter while Mankato West dominated time of possession.

An interception thrown by Huskies’ quarterback Aedan Tackmann set Mankato West up for a prime opportunity to make it a three-score game, but Williams’ defense managed to hold the Scarlets for a turnover on downs at the team’s own three-yard line.

Owatonna used its newfound life to march down the field and threaten Mankato West in the red zone after eating up most of the second-quarter clock, but the momentum died when a fourth-and-four rush was stuffed by the Scarlets at their own 10-yard line.

Two plays later, Mankato West would go on to score on a 92-yard rush up the middle to lead 21-0 with just 2:22 left in the half.

The second half was equally as unkind to the Huskies as turnovers and a high-octane opposing offense proved too much.

Owatonna fumbled its snap on a fourth-and-one attempt at its own 28-yard line to give Mankato West another short field.

At this point, the Scarlets had made it a point to continue running the football – especially with their six-foot-five, 215-pound quarterback, Lorenz.

The bruiser had 35- and 50-yard rushing touchdowns to round out the scoring for Mankato West in the second half.

Owatonna running back Kade Hullopeter scored the Huskies’ lone touchdown on a 10-yard rushing touchdown in the late stages of the game when a comeback was already out of question.

The loss moves the Huskies to 0-2 on the season, but does not effect the team’s conference rankings at 0-0.

Up next for Owatonna is a road game against Rochester Century scheduled for Friday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.

The Panthers have had their fair share of troubles this season too, and enter Friday’s matchup with an 0-2 record after dropping consecutive games to Tartan and Chaska.

Player Stats

Passing

#7 Aedan Tackmann – 6/20 78 yards 1 Int.; #13 Arik Tackmann – 1/1 25 yards

Rushing

#20 Tristan Graham – 18 att. 67 yards; #28 Will Frantesl – 2 att. 18 yards; #21 Kade Hullopeter – 2 att. 15 yards 1 TD; #26 Zachary Roesner – 4 att. 6 yards

Receiving

#26 Roesner – 1 rec. 39 yards; #15 Cooper Routh – 1 rec. 25 yards; #6 Mason Klecker – 2 rec. 22 yards; #14 Lee Smith – 1 rec. 13 yards; #85 Will Halverson – 1 rec. 3 yards; #20 Graham – 1 rec. 1 yard