Football: NLS Wildcats get stunned by Albany Huskies
Nov. 3—COLD SPRING — Grant Paffrath was in shock. So was Mason Delzer. It's safe to say anyone else in New London-Spicer black-and-gold felt the same.
Albany scored on the last play of the game, then converted a two-point pass to beat New London-Spicer 24-23 in the Section 6AAA championship at Rocori's Blattner Stadium.
The Huskies did it by scoring the final 24 points of the game, including two fourth-quarter touchdowns in the final 3:50.
"I'm just in shock it's all over," said Paffrath, a senior tight end/linebacker who helped the Wildcats build a 20-0 halftime lead. "We all worked so hard to get here. And it's just done."
Albany heads back to the state playoffs for the first time since 2015, though the Huskies did win a section championship during the 2020 season when there was no state tournament because of the pandemic.
And New London-Spicer sees its season end far short of its goal of defending its state Class AAA championship, when it beat Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton in the Prep Bowl on the last play of the game.
"It's not how I wanted it to happen," said Delzer, the senior running back who rushed for 175 yards and two touchdowns and also had a 79-yard punt return for a score that gave NLS its 20-point lead. "You win as a team and you lose as a team."
This time, NLS lost.
What made this one hurt even more is that NLS beat Albany 48-20 in the opening week of the season.
In that one, the Wildcats led big at halftime and won easily. But the Huskies have had their own share of last-second drama, too.
They beat Montevideo 43-42, scoring on the last play of that game on Oct. 18.
There were some parallels between that game against the Thunder Hawks and Friday night's contest. Star running back/linebacker Francis O'Malley was injured, enabling the Huskies to make their unlikely comeback.
On Friday, Delzer hurt his right knee. He came limping off early in the fourth quarter with the Wildcats up 23-8.
"I get hit (on a tackle)," Delzer said. "I can't put any weight on it. It feels real loose."
It was a huge momentum swing. Albany passed for its final two scores and really couldn't run the ball. The Huskies had 36 yards rushing, but 244 passing.
Quarterback Andrew Olson first found Hunter Hamann for an 18-yard TD pass with 2:54 to go in the third quarter. Then, Ethan Meyer scored on a two-yard run with 3:50 to play.
After NLS shanked a punt with 16 seconds to go, Albany took over on the Wildcats' 36-yard line. Olson first found Drew Lehner for a 30-yard pass down to the 2-yard line. Albany then stopped the clock with an incompletion with two seconds to go.
After an NLS pass interference, Olson found Hamann in the end zone. Olson then hit Jack Rieland for the two-point conversion pass and the win.
It was time to be stunned for NLS.
"I think we had some missed opportunities in the first half," Albany head coach Mike Ellingson said. "But we certainly made up for it."
Albany plays Section 8AAA champion Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10 at Jefferson High School in Alexandria in the Class AAA quarterfinals. DGF beat Morris/Chokio-Alberta 35-14 on Friday night at the Fargodome in Fargo, North Dakota.
