Owatonna's defense slams the door on Northfield in second half

A district title and a clear path to the No. 1 seed for the Section 1AAAAA playoffs hung in the balance when Owatonna and Northfield renewed their rivalry Friday in Owatonna. After a dominant defensive performance it looks like the Huskies are headed for the No. 1 seed in the section following a 29-11 victory over the Raiders, though that No. 1 seed isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Northfield held that No. 1 seed last year but got bounced by Rochester Century in the semifinals. Owatonna ran away with the section title en route to the Class 5A state championship. After Friday’s performance, it looked like the Huskies might be headed back to the Prep Bowl, though they’ll need to get their offense put together completely. Owatonna did just enough offensively, despite the score, to get by the Raiders. The No. 1-ranked Huskies (7-0) benefitted from a short field throughout the night and three turnovers by Northfield. Mason Oland recovered a Raiders fumble and returned it 31 yards for one score and a Jake Miller interception returned to the Northfield 1-yard line set up a Jason Williamson touchdown. Owatonna held the Raiders scoreless in the second half and just 144 yards of total offense for the game. Northfield (5-2) with a five-game winning streak and a rushing attack that averaged nearly 200 yards game. Raiders running backs Jim Vitito and Mitchell Stanchina combined to rush for just 13 yards for the game. “We knew we had to come out and shut the door on them right away so we were all fired up,” Miller said. The Huskies actually trailed 11-10 at halftime before forcing a three-and-out on Northfield's first series of the second half. Williamson, a University of Minnesota recruit, rushed in from 10 yards out with 7 minutes, 46 seconds left in the third quarter to put the Huskies in front 16-11 after a two-point conversion failed. Williamson, the all-time leading rusher in the state with more than 5,000 career rushing yards, found solid footing in the second half and finished with 127 yards total after being limited in the first half. Oland recovered the fumble and returned it for a touchdown on the Raiders’ second play of their second series to extend the lead to 22-11 following another failed two-point conversion. The play of the defense and a young offensive line against a quality Northfield team will go a long way for Owatonna as it prepares for the postseason, defensive lineman Joseph Stransky said. “I feel like it helped our guys out a lot and made them realize that we aren’t as great as we think we are and we have a lot of work to do,” he said. “There are a lot of guys who are younger and they’ve always done well in the past and they’ve always been undefeated so when they face adversity that helps them out.” Another three-and-out possession by Northfield allowed Owatonna an opportunity to march down the field. The Huskies gave Williamson the ball on five of the plays. Junior quarterback Sol Havelka, who relieved sophomore starter Brayden Truelson in the second quarter, ran in from a yard out to make it 29-11 following the point-after kick. Havelka hadn’t played since the second week of the season after a knee injury limited his availability, Owatonna head coach Jeff Williams said. “I thought he did a nice job but we didn’t want to ask him to do too much,” Williams said. “We’ve been playing a sophomore up until this point. We still really like the sophomore. We’re really pleased with both of those kids.” Havelka finished 8-for-11 for 86 yards as the Huskies shied away from the run game in the second quarter in the hope that passing would open up the rushing attack later. It did. “They were starting to load the box up on us a little bit and we felt like if we could get a little bit of pressure off of the box, then maybe see if we couldn’t uncap them,” Williams said. Owatonna ran off the final 9:27 of the game with a 15-play drive that included two fourth-down conversions. In the first half it was the Raiders who benefitted from mistakes by the Huskies. Northfield went up 2-0 when a snap on a punt went through the Owatonna end zone. The Huskies recovered a Northfield fumble but stalled on a fourth-and-goal, opting for a 24-yard field goal to take a 3-2 lead. Williamson’s first touchdown run put Owatonna up 10-2 with 2:08 to play in the first quarter. Northfield responded with a 12-play, 89-yard drive that concluded with Mason Zick finding Luke LaPanta for a 5-yard touchdown pass to make it a 10-8 game after a two-point conversion failed. The Raiders took an 11-10 lead behind a 25-yard field goal from Caleb Voight with 1:46 to play in the first half. Northfield did limit the Huskies to a season-low 234 yards of total offense, but Owatonna played with a short field for much of the second half. Still, the 18-point victory was the slimmest margin of victory for the team this season. The Huskies can wrap up the No. 1 seed and the district title Wednesday against New Prague. Notes: Northfield head coach Bubba Sullivan, who won his 200th career game earlier this season, is in his 29th year leading the Raiders. Jeff Williams is in his 22nd year at Owatonna and the two coaches have had some great games in that time. Going as far back as 1997 and 1998 when Northfield defeated Owatonna in the section title game on its way to a state championship. The Huskies defeated the Raiders in the section semifinals the next season and finished runner-up to Hutchinson at state. More recently, Northfield upset Owatonna in the 2015 playoffs when Isaac Stadler hit five field goals for the fourth-seeded Raiders against the top-seeded Huskies in Owatonna. The Huskies defeated the Raiders 38-20 the next season. Northfield defeated Owatonna 21-17 last year to clinch the No. 1 seed for the playoffs but Rochester Century bounced the Raiders in the semifinals while the Huskies clobbered three opponents at the state tournament for the Class 5A title. Owatonna owns a 40-11-1 advantage in the all-time series and has outscored Northfield 988-494 in that time. “I’ve just got a lot of respect for Coach [Mark] Woitalla and his defense, lot of respect for Bubba and what he does,” Williams said. “They’re just a classy operation and they prepare their kids really, really, really well.” Woitalla’s son, Adam, is a ninth-grade football coach at Owatonna and the head wrestling coach. The Huskies’ offensive line features just one senior this year and Williams is the other senior that plays on offense.