Big games tend to come down to big moments, and none were bigger than Owatonna linebacker Blake Fitcher scooping up a loose ball on fourth down, running 65-yards in the other direction, and giving the Huskies a 14-7 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Against the defending state champs it could be a season-defining moment for Owatonna, as it knocked off Chanhassen 21-7 Friday night, the kind of win that builds confidence as much as it builds resume.
Of course, now at 0-2 on the year, it could simply turn out that the Storm are not the team they were a year ago, but the Huskies earned it all the same, playing in front of an energized crowd that understood the stakes.
Win and people start to notice. Sure, maybe Owatonna football isn't exactly a secret, but you knock off the defending champs and nobody has a choice but to pay attention now.
"He's just been a big play guy for us last two years," Huskies' head coach Jeff Williams said of Fitcher. "He's the guy that gets the blocked kicks. He's the guy that gets the interceptions, you know, where you don't see him run across the route and he's in the lane. He's just been a big play guy for us for for two years, and that was as big a play as he's made.
"Hats off to the defense tonight," Williams added. "They just stymied Chanhassen all night and allowed our offense to get a little bit of footing in the third and fourth quarter. So hats off to the defense. They played awesome."
In many respects, it was fitting that the defense was the unit to decide the game as both teams traded punches with their linebackers as much as anything else. It's the time of year when Minnesota is cold, but not too cold at night, the sort of game where the hits start to sting a little bit more and you find out who really wants to line up and take another.
And the Huskies did, pounding away on the ground, relentless on defense and unafraid on offense. A 27-yard touchdown catch by Nolan Ginskey would make it 21-7 later on in the fourth, and while Chanhassen would get the ball again, a long fourth down deep in its own territory would force a punt. In many ways that was the white flag, an understanding that this just wasn't the night for a multi-touchdown comeback.
The crowd roared.
With six games left to go in the regular season the Huskies will now have to prepare for the marathon ahead. The nights won't be getting any warmer, the bumps and bruises any less noticeable. That means if Owatonna wants to make good on its early season start, it will need depth.
And for a coach like Williams, he has been around long enough to know the season is a marathon, not a sprint.
"We learned that we've got to get a few kids off the field," Williams said. "We're really relying on a lot of two way guys. It took our best athletes on the field tonight to be Chanhassen. We're going to have to develop some depth now so that we can get those guys a blow because you know they were warriors tonight but we can't do that to him every week."
The Huskies will head on the road to face New Prague next week before hosting Northfield the following Friday. A trip to Rochester Century will come after that and then the next big test for the Huskies — a date with Mankato West in early October.
Come out of that stretch unscathed and the Huskies might just have something special on their hands.
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