High Five: Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted vs Concordia Academy

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In what will likely go down as the biggest upset of the 2019 Minnesota high school football playoffs, previously winless – for over two seasons – Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted went on the road and defeated 7-1 Concordia Academy in the open round of the Section 4AA playoffs. The Lakers jumped out to an 18-0 lead and never looked back until they had won the game 26-7. Here are the players – many more than five, as you will see – that stood out on Tuesday night.
Gabe Hausladen, Ryan Tuchtenhagen, and Kyle Driver – Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted guards and center
The three interior linemen set the tone for the game. Four of the first six offensive plays the Lakers ran were behind the three upperclassmen. Two of those plays went for touchdowns. They opened a hole for running back Noah Bush to pick up the first down and then allowed running back AJ Gatz to get free up the middle for a 38-yard touchdown run. The first offensive play after forcing a three and out, Gatz again found room up the middle for a 67-yard touchdown run.
Cody Dickhausen – Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted OT/DE
Dickhausen helped the Lakers’ running backs have success on the outside – including on the team’s third touchdown. Maybe more impressively, he helped shut down a Beacons’ offense that before Tuesday night had scored over thirty points five times during the regular season. Down 18-0, after six consecutive positive plays by the Beacons’ offense, it looked like they were about to get back into the game. Dickhausen put a stop to that by making a tackle for loss that forced a fourth and long that Concordia Academy could not convert. Later in the game, the senior made another tackle for loss. Perhaps Lakers’ quarterback Bennett Paulson said it best.
“They were fired up and were super fun to watch,” Paulson said about his defense. “Hunter Decker and Cody Dickhausen were especially big.”
Cody Christensen, Remington Albright, Nick Uter, Jake Flecke, Liam Eberhard, Logan Krone, Ryan Tuchtenhagen, Daryl Hoff and Cody Dickhausen – The nine Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted seniors
This group had not won a varsity game since October 24, 2017. That was a stretch of 18 straight games. The seniors that were on the winning side Tuesday night either played or were on the sidelines for all those games. They could have quit. They maybe had friends that did quit. These nine guys did not, and they were rewarded for all their hard work on Tuesday night.
Aiden Kingsbury Concordia Academy OT/DE
Kingsbury was a physical presence along the line of scrimmage all night. Outside of the two big plays at the beginning of the game, Concordia Academy’s defense held the Lakers’ offense in check. One guy they had trouble dealing with was Kingsbury. The Beacons’ offense moved the ball successfully for long stretches of the game but would almost always shoot themselves in the foot with a missed block or a penalty. Very few of those mistakes came from the 6’5″ 260-pound junior. On the Beacons’ lone touchdown drive, they went to a power package that put Kingsbury in the backfield. His blocking from the fullback spot paid off when the offense called his number, and he plunged into the end zone with his own five-yard touchdown run.