After a string of losses put the Waconia football team below .500, the Wildcats bounced back in a big way, defeating Chaska 35-21 Oct. 4.
“It’s a great feeling,” Will Olson said. “We’ve had our struggles the past couple of weeks, but this is Waconia right here. This is what we do. This is how we play and we’re not slowing down.”
The Wildcats have an underdog mentality, knowing that they are better than others may think. After all, they just took the top team in the district to overtime last week in a 34-31 loss at Mankato East.
“We’re coming back next week even better,” Nehemiah Ombati said. “This is what we work for. People are going to underestimate us every single week. But we came to play [tonight].”
And with the win Friday night, the Wildcats reclaimed the Brown Jug from Chaska.
“It means a whole lot,” Olson said of claiming the Brown Jug. “We haven’t had it the past 2 years and it just shows what we can do. It paves the way for the next generation.”
Waconia started the game airing it out, with Kaden Herman connecting with Owen Hiltner for a 49-yard touchdown pass. Following a pair of Chaska touchdowns, Herman threw two more TD passes when finding Olson on an 8-yard score and Cooper Jahnke on a 2-yard touchdown.
“We knew we wanted to run some lighter personnel packages, get the ball to the receivers to kind of loosen up their front seven, which is a very good defense,” coach Corey Shea said. “They are very good defense. And once we loosened them up a little bit, we were able to run it a little bit more. Nick Theis replaced Wil Goldschmidt just had an amazing game tonight. He did an awesome job filling his shoes. He ran the ball hard, found some holes that weren’t even there. He got some yards after contact and was just absolutely what we needed.”
Theis finished with 166 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries (7.9 yards per carry) and Herman threw for 224 yards and four touchdowns on nine completions (24.9 yards per completion).
With the offense in rhythm, the defense settled in, keeping the Hawks off the scoreboard for a stretch of 31 minutes.
“That’s our defense we showed in the first 2 weeks,” Olson said, referencing the first two wins where the ‘Cats allowed just seven points.
While Chaska was able to move the ball, the Waconia defense always came up with a big play when needed. Ombati and Olson were big disruptors in the backfield, with Ombati tying for the team lead in tackles (13, tied with Jahnke) and Olson tallying two sacks.
“Those guys are tremendously talented players,” Shea said. “Nehemiah is just a sophomore, but he does a great job plugging up the middle of the defensive line there. Will Olson is just energy, energy, energy, energy the entire game. If you’re an offensive lineman going against him, you better pack a lunch because he is going to bring it every single play. He only knows one speed.”
With the defense shutting the Hawks down, the offense iced the game in the second half with a 71-yard strike from Herman to Ryan Lange and a 19-yard run by Theis to give Waconia 35 points on the night.
With the win, Waconia moves to 3-3 on the season and the district/section is wide open. Chaska, Chanhassen, Mankato West are all 3-3. Mankato East is 5-1, though Waconia just took them to overtime.
“Top to bottom, one through five, it’s an impressive group of teams right there just in our little district,” Shea said.
The ‘Cats head to New Prague Oct. 11 before hosting Bemidji Oct. 16.
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