As the final seconds ticked off the clock Friday night on the Owatonna High School football field, there was one thing that had the fans off their seats; with a 38-21 Section 1AAAAA championship victory over the Northfield Raiders, the Huskies just punched their own ticket to the Minnesota Class 5A State Tournament.

After a destructive 58-0 win over the Austin Packers in the second round of section play, the Huskies went on to the field Friday knowing that this game was going to take the same, if not better, effort. The same opponent (Northfield) ended the Huskies’ season last year in the second round of play. Beating the Raiders 21-3 in the regular season, the Huskies knew this was a whole different game. The Raiders came into the game on a winning streak and shared a similar record to the Huskies, both 7-3. Owatonna senior center Josh Burns commented on seeing the Raiders again, “We had a good hard week of practice, and worked on some of the things that we can get better at as a team. Even though they had a few starters back this time, I was confident that we were improved and would get the job done.”

Although surrendering a long touchdown run in the first quarter and trailing 7-3 to the Raiders, two quick goal line touchdowns by sophomore Jason Williamson (four total) was all the Huskies needed, Northfield never held the lead beyond that point. Brett Solie iced the game in the third quarter with a long touchdown catch of over 40 yards. Owatonna’s big win on Friday was also credited to tough defensive play, forcing a number of turnovers and creating short fields for the offense all night. All around, the Huskies (8-2) took over the game. Head coach Jeff Williams capped off another successful section run, “I’m really happy for our guys. It was a goal of theirs to win a section championship. The next goal is to play in US Bank Stadium. We will face a difficult test against Apple Valley, and will have to play our best game of the year if we are going to be successful.”

The Huskies became the sixth team in school history to win the section title on Friday. Owatonna will now compete amongst eight other class 5A section champions in the 2016 Minnesota State High School State Tournament.

The first round of state play will begin on Saturday, Nov. 12 where the Huskies will take on Apple Valley at Lakeville North High School at 6 p.m. Advance tickets are on sale at the OHS Office Monday- Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A win over the Eagles would result in a second round matchup against the winner of Elk River and Mahtomedi.