MANKATO — Two weeks ago, the Mankato West football team controlled the line of scrimmage in a dominating 28-7 win over Mankato East in the annual Jug game.
Saturday afternoon at Todnem Field, the Cougars’ interior strength was the difference in an impressive 35-15 victory over West in the Section 2AAAAA semifinals, ending a string of 19 straight West wins in the rivalry.
“We felt we needed to play with the lead,” East coach Eric Davis said of his decision to receive the opening kickoff. “We knew what they wanted to do offensively so we had to take them out of that. We knew all week that we wanted to get the ball and be aggressive early in the game. They’re really good against the run so we were going to go down swinging with our quick passing game.
“We knew we had to be better physically against them because that showed in the first game. We knew if we could slow down the run and make it a 50-50 game that it would give us a chance.”
Ganden Gosch, who completed 12 of 18 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns to go along with 57 yards on 10 rushes, drove the Cougars (7-2) 80 yards in just five plays on the opening possession. He found Brogan Madson for 7 yards, Lucas Gustafson for 36 yards and Jacob Langworthy for 12 yards before senior tight end Bradley Stoffel turned quick toss over the middle into a 25-yard score.
After senior linebacker Nathan Bridger’s defensive stop force a punt, East traveled 85 yards in 11 plays to take a 14-0 lead on Gosch’s 44-yard scoring strike to junior receiver Hayden Tischler with 1:40 left in the first quarter. Tischler, who caught four passes for 69 yards, eluded a pair of tackles before spinning free and heading down the middle of the field.
“Our confidence was up and we were determined,” Gosch said. “We wanted to shove it down their throat so we knew we had to bring it to them. We wanted to come out quick to make them play from behind. They like to put on pressure so if I didn’t get it out quick they would be ready. It makes us a better team when I can get the ball out quick.”
After Leland Cramblit’s fourth-down defensive gem stopped the Scarlets (5-4), Gosch’s 25-yard scramble and an 11-yard burst from Logan Kleist set up Kleist’s 1-yard TD to make it 21-0 at halftime. East forced a three-and-out to begin the third quarter and moments later Gosch floated a 32-yard TD pass to Gustafson to expand the margin to 28-0. Gustafson finished with three receptions for 76 yards.
“We just came out a little bit flat,” West coach JJ Helget said. “We preached that we couldn’t be complacent and expect the same thing to happen as last time we played them. They had a good game plan. They were just more physical than we were and won the line of scrimmage. … Hats off to them, they were the better team today.”
West trimmed the deficit to 28-7 when junior quarterback Charles Bobholz fired a 62-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver El Staley with 3:55 to go in the third quarter. Staley pulled down 10 receptions for 170 yards while Bobholz was 12 of 27 for 225 yards. Junior running back Trevor Sheldrup rushed 16 times for 84 yards as the Scarlets totaled 319 yards compared to the Cougars’ 318.
East then got a 20-yard interception return for a score from junior linebacker Tyler Thilges before Frank McAninch’s 6-yard TD run closed out the scoring. McAninch and Stihl Koberoski led the Scarlets with nine stops each, while Bridger and Kleist were in on seven stops each for East.
“We had a bad taste in our mouth so we were determined to win this one,” Thilges said. “We executed very well and left it all on the field. We had a different mentality coming into this game and were ready.”
East plays at Chanhassen on Friday for the 2AAAAA title. East defeated Chanhassen 43-19 on Oct. 4 at Chanhassen.