Section 6AAA football: NLS takes another step toward state

Oct. 28—NEW LONDON — A turnover-filled frenzy pushed the New London-Spicer football team to a victory over Sauk Centre on Saturday at Pederson Field.

The fourth-seeded Mainstreeters turned the ball over six times before the top-seeded Wildcats came away with a 48-14 victory in the Section 6AAA semifinal. NLS takes on second-seeded Albany in the section championship at 7 p.m. Friday at Rocori High School's Blattner Stadium in Cold Spring. The Wildcats hope to make it back to the Class AAA state playoffs for a third consecutive season.

"We've been working for this all season long and it's been a grind all year," NLS senior Grant Paffrath said. "We have fought hard to get here and now we got to finish it out."

Although the final score shows a big win by a wide margin, NLS head coach Chad Gustafson knows his Wildcats can and need to be better moving forward.

"We scored right away, but we didn't think we played a clean game," Gustafson said of his Wildcats, who had two turnovers — a fumble and an interception. "We didn't execute as crisp as we'd like to, and because it's Week 9, you think you're going to be a lot sharper.

"We're very happy that we won the game, but we want to play our best football at the end of October and into November."

Sauk Centre had five turnovers in the first half. The Wildcats jumped out to a 34-8 lead after scoring 19 of those points off turnovers.

After NLS got a 58-yard touchdown run from Mason Delzer 59 seconds into the contest, the Wildcats forced a fumble on Sauk Centre's ensuing kickoff and took over at the Mainstreeters' 12-yard line. Nolan Johnson caught a four-yard pass from Blake Schultz on fourth-and-three to make it a 13-0 lead 3:14 into the first quarter.

"That was huge," Delzer said of NLS' start. "It's hard in this cold weather to continue to want to play when you get hit in the mouth right away."

Sauk Centre cut its deficit to five off a one-handed, nine-yard catch by Jeric Schloegl, who also converted the Mainstreeters' two-point conversion.

But the Wildcats responded on the next possession. Delzer punched in another touchdown and threw a pass to Schultz for a two-point conversion. That gave them a 21-8 advantage before they scored their next two touchdowns off Sauk Centre turnovers.

Paffrath had a 28-yard interception return and Delzer capped off a 94-yard drive with a 25-yard touchdown grab 44.4 seconds before the half. The lengthy drive began following an interception by Johnson, which brought NLS' first-half and final interception total to three.

Sauk Centre fumbled the ball for the third and final time on its second play out of the halftime break. On the very next play, Schultz connected with Paffrath for an 18-yard touchdown, which extended the Wildcats' lead to 41-8.

"Anytime you can force six turnovers, you know you're doing some really good things on defense," Gustafson said. "But you have to turn all that into points and we did, sometimes."

The teams exchanged final touchdowns in the third quarter. Schloegl secured his second touchdown on a 24-yard touchdown catch and Delzer notched his fourth total touchdown on an eight-yard scamper.

What does it mean to get back to the Section 6AAA final?

"Not a whole lot yet. We still got to win," Delzer said. "It would be huge for us to go (to state) three years in a row. That's the goal. The further goal would be to win the whole thing."

"If you can win that section title — punch your ticket to state — that would be amazing," Gustafson said. "We just hope that we can put a good product on the field on Friday, and hopefully, the kids can do enough to win the game."

Second-seeded Albany managed to keep third-seeded Montevideo out of the end zone in its victory at Michael Field in Albany.

The Thunder Hawks piled up 162 yards rushing on 52 carries and quarterback Carson Boike passed for 105 yards, completing 12 of 20 passes. That was 72 plays for 267 yards.

Senior running back Francis O'Malley had 40 rushes for 156 yards for Montevideo.

For Albany, Adam Dennis rushed 13 times for 120 yards and three TDs. The Huskies also passed for another score. Hunter Hamann caught a 40-yard scoring pass from Aaron Olson.

Grant Wohletz had 18 tackles for the Huskies, including 11 solo. Cooper Brinkman added 17 tackles, including 11 solo.