OWATONNA — Multiple big plays in the first have proved to be the difference as the Mankato East High School football team earned a 28-7 road win over Owatonna Friday night.
“They put in a lot of work in the off-season,” Cougars head coach Eric Davis said. “We’re thinking this is just the start of something big.”
Sophomore quarterback Kellen Willeart made his first varsity start Friday. He didn’t wait long to make an impact.
Facing third and nine from the 50-yard line, he found senior Lucas Gustafson wide open. With no defenders in the vicinity, Gustafson waltzed into the endzone for the score and a 7-0 Cougars lead after a successful PAT attempt.
“(Kellen) threw a good ball,” Gustafson said. “We needed that first touchdown to get going. I feel like we just started rolling after that.”
Big plays even rolled on defense. After the Huskies were backed up five yards on first down thanks to a false start, Cougars senior Tyler Thiiges backed up the home team an extra 10 yards thanks to a sack.
Owatonna ultimately punted and pinned the Cougars at their own 12-yard line. But no one told that to junior Blake Kamphoff on third and 10. He barreled 88 yards to the house for a 13-0 Cougars lead with a few ticks under eight minutes left in the half.
Then the Cougars accumulated a series of chunk plays on offense while starting at their own 8-yard line.
Willeart scrambled to pick up 17 yards. Kamphoff picked up 10 yards on a carry. Willeart connected with senior Hayden Tischler for 37 yards.
Then senior Logan Kleist picked up 15 yards to set up first and goal from the 10. On the ensuing play he beat nearly every defender to the pylon, leaping like a golden retriever into autumn’s first leaf pile for a touchdown — and a 19-0 East lead.
“I think we were the stronger team up front,” Davis said. “I think we’re a little more experienced on the line of scrimmage, which probably showed.”
The Cougars cemented their three-touchdown lead with 7:44 to go in the game. And it came in the form of another big play.
The Huskies were pinned at their own 1-yard line trailing 26-7. They needed something to spark any sort of comeback.
But junior Bennett Blom had other ideas. After suffering an injury to his right hand in a scrimmage last week he wore a brace that made him stand out. Well, it wasn’t really a brace. It was more along the lines of something Fred Flintstone used to fend off intruders.
He fired into the hole, met Huskies running back Tristan Graham and drove him into the wrong endzone for a safety.
“We were calling a blitz all game, and I finally ended up doing the right thing, found the right angle and got to the running back,” Blom said. “All the other times I was going too deep.”
The Huskies avoided being skunked on the scoreboard thanks in large part to the opening kick return in the second half which placed them at the Cougars’ 37-yard line. A 7-play, 37-yard drive was capped on a 17-yard touchdown pass on fourth and nine.
The Cougars host Rochester John Marshall 7 p.m. Friday.