Lourdes rolls on Senior Night to set up showdown with Stewartville

Oct. 13—ROCHESTER — Mike Kesler chuckled when asked about his 10-player senior class.

"They're just a great group of guys who've been around a long time," the long-time Rochester Lourdes football coach said. "They're a tight-knit group, can be kind of goofy sometimes, but that's what I like about them. They've done such a great job all year.

"You want Senior Night to be memorable and it was."

The Eagles' old guys indeed stood out on Senior Night — with quite a bit of help from a standout young guy along the way — in a 42-8 victory against Zumbrota-Mazeppa in a South District high school football game at a rain-soaked Rochester Regional Stadium on Friday.

Senior quarterback Adam Sellner ran for two touchdowns (12 and 17 yards) in the first quarter behind a senior-heavy offensive line. Sophomore do-it-all Ed Lovely accounted for Lourdes' other four TDs, its final 28 points and 30 of its 42 total points.

"It means everything to us," Sellner said of playing a dominant, complete game on both sides of the ball on Senior Night. "I think like always, it starts up front. Our five linemen, I can't say anything more about them. They played their hardest, like they do every week, but we finally put four quarters together."

Lovely, a fullback/linebacker/kicker who plays much bigger than his listed size of 5-feet-8, 165 pounds, ran for a 10-yard touchdown in the second quarter, then scored on runs of 3 and 11 yards in the third quarter before returning an interception 16 yards for a TD late in the third. He was also 6-for-6 on PAT kicks in the game.

"He's just a grinder, played and started all last year as a freshman," Kesler said of Lovely. "(He) plays both sides of the ball, kicks — he's 100% on PATs this year — doing a great job. He does so much for this football team and he's a really good runner. He's just a great kid, a tough, hard-nosed kid.

"In our offense, it has to be a three-position threat, we can't just rely on Adam and the tailback. To get Ed going is huge. It makes things that much more difficult (for opponents). We have to be able to apply that pressure to defenses."

Kesler thought it was imperative that the Eagles get Lovely going strong as a runner this week. The Eagles' big victory on Friday means they will take a 6-1 mark and a six-game winning streak to Stewartville for Wednesday's 7 p.m. game against the 7-0 and No. 1-ranked Tigers. The winner will likely be the top seed in the eight-team Section 1-3A tournament, which begins Tuesday, Oct. 24.

"Obviously, big game, they used to be our big rival," Sellner said of Stewartville, which has shut out four consecutive opponents. "We're excited to have the rivalry back and we know they have a great football team. We'll go play our brand of football and get ready for the playoffs."

The Eagles will take plenty of momentum into Wednesday's regular-season finale after sending their 10 seniors — Liam Barry, Mardoche Pierson, Collin Weinschenk, Will Roth, Isaac Wenszell, Nels Pierson, Adam Sellner, Thatcher Bochmann, Trevor Heindel and Eric Nelson, and team manager Patrick Streefland — out with a bang in their final regular-season home game.

Not only did the Eagles put up 42 points, they limited Z-M to just one touchdown, that coming against Lourdes' second-team defense, with 3:27 to play in the game. Cougars' QB Hadyn Boraas scored on a 17-yard run to cap a drive in which Z-M's offense accumulated 80 of its 136 yards in the game.

"Senior Night, to be able to come out and play like we did, get every kid in the game ...," Kesler said. "It's important that our young guys get a taste, too. They work hard every day in practice, have to be the scout team, so it was exciting to get those young guys on the field, and it meant a lot to our seniors to see them out there, too."

Zumbrota-Mazeppa falls to 1-6 overall, with four of those losses coming against teams ranked or receiving votes in this week's state polls — Lourdes (receiving votes, Class 3A); Stewartville (No. 1, Class 3A); Caledonia (No. 2, Class 2A); and Chatfield (No. 7, Class 2A).

Z-M closes its regular season at 7 p.m. Wednesday, at home against Pine Island.

Zumbrota-Mazeppa 0-0-0-8 — 8

Rochester Lourdes 14-7-21-0 — 42

First Quarter

Lourdes — Adam Sellner 13 run (Ed Lovely kick) 5:00.

Lourdes — Sellner 17 run (Lovely kick) 1:52.

Second Quarter

Lourdes — Lovely 10 run (Lovely kick) 2:00.

Third Quarter

Lourdes — Lovely 3 run (Lovely kick) 5:52.

Lourdes — Lovely 11 run (Lovely kick) 0:57.

Lourdes — Lovely 16 interception return (Lovely kick) 0:26.

Fourth Quarter

Z-M — Hadyn Boraas 17 run (Ben Flaaen pass from Boraas) 3:27.

TEAM TOTALS

ZM — LRDS

First downs 6 — 14

Total net yards 136 — 221

Rushes-yards 27-64 — 38-138

Passing yards 72 — 83

Comp.att.-int. 7-20-3 — 3-7-1

Fumbles-lost 1-1 — 1-0

Penalties-yards 5-21 — 2-39

Punts-avg. 0-0.0 — 4-31.5

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

ZM — Will Higley 3-29; Colby Dohrn 7-18; Hadyn Boraas 5-18, 1 TD; Keagen Haugen 1-2; Taite Raasch 2-0; Oliver Liffrig 1-0; Evan Klindworth 8-(minus-3). LRDS — Adam Sellner 9-56, 2 TDs; Ed Lovely 10-47, 3 TDs; Max Pederson 9-24; Caleb Akinbolu 3-8; Lucas Brooks 6-3; Michael Sieve 1-0.

Passing

ZM — Hadyn Boraas 3-9-3, 43 yards; Taite Raasch 4-9-0, 29 yards. LRDS — Adam Sellner 3-7-1, 83 yards.

Receiving

ZM — Benjamin Helfer 1-34; Landon Flaaen 2-13; Bakster Arendt 1-9; Oliver Liffrig 1-9; Owen Hoefs 1-7; Austin Jentsch 1-0. LRDS — Trevor Heindel 2-70; Eric Nelson 1-13.