MANKATO — Mankato East tuned up for the grueling Section 2AAAAA football playoffs by pounding Austin 57-0 Wednesday night at Wolverton Field.
East amassed 356 total yards compared to the Packers’ -1 in improving to 6-2 on the season. However, the Cougars’ impressive victory probably won’t strengthen their resume enough to grab the No. 1 seed.
“We were able to keep some guys out and look at some younger players tonight,” East coach Eric Davis said. “We knew the game might go this way so we asked for kind of a professional effort out of our guys and I thought we got that. A lot of guys work hard but don’t get a chance to play on the big stage and everyone got a chance tonight so that was fun to see.
“We didn’t gauge our effort based on the score. We didn’t play any less hard base on what was happening and that’s what we asked the guys to do all week. Somebody is probably going to have to beat a team they lost to in order to win this section. We’ll seed how the seeds shake out tomorrow, but we kind of think we know how they’re going to go. … It should be a fun tournament.”
Austin (0-8) intercepted Cougars’ senior quarterback Ganden Gosch on the game’s first possession before senior defensive back Nathan Bridger’s theft and 29-yard return for a score began a 36-point first-quarter burst.
Gosch fired a 64-yard scoring strike to a shifty Lucas Gustafson before Zach Bosse’s 12-yard touchdown run and Gosch’s 1-yard TD toss to Hayden Tischler expanded the margin to 29-0.
“We came together and played a great game,” Bridger said. “We’re focused more on what’s to come. It was a great feeling to get my first interception of the year. He threw it to the receiver, and I just ripped it out of his hands and ran it in. Our defense played phenomenal the whole game. It’s been a good year for us, and it was kind of expected.”
Sophomore running back Blake Kamphoff then gained 113 yards and scored a trio of touchdowns as the Cougars went into the locker room with a 50-0 advantage. Kamphoff bounced off three tackles on a 27-yard scoring burst before crossing the goal line from 6 and 33 yards.
East actually knelt the ball down to end the half with a first-and-goal from the 2-yard line.
“We stayed focused and really worked hard in practice,” Kamphoff said. “We knew if we did what we could that we’d be fine. I got the opportunity tonight and like the rest of our guys we took advantage of our opportunities throughout the game. It was exciting to see our whole team play well. I couldn’t have scored without the blocking of our offensive line. … They’ve been good all season.”
Sophomore running back Anthony Lucero rushed for 87 yards in 10 attempts while Gosch ended up 4 of 7 for 104 yards and two scores.
Sophomore outside linebacker Bennett Blom led the defensive charge with 4.5 stops while junior linebacker Boston Meyer was in on 3.5 stops.