Penalties Doom Kenyon-Wanamingo Football Team

The Kenyon-Wanamingo Knights dominated the second half, holding Maple River to fewer than 10 yards rushing, but late penalties proved costly in a 17-14 loss in Mapleton.

My unofficial Baker and Axelson of Wanamingo statistics had the Knights with 282 total yards in the game and the Eagles with 240.

Kenyon-Wanamingo rushed for 201 yards and Maple River threw for 146.

The Knights appeared to make some very nice halftime adjustments and held Maple River to 71 total second-half yards; 51 of those came on the Eagles' game-winning drive aided by a couple of penalties called on Kenyon-Wanamingo.

Maple River sophomore kicker Nathan Moore booted a 33-yard field goal with eight seconds to go for the winner, and it had plenty of distance. He missed a 28-yarder earlier in the game.

Kenyon-Wanamingo had a long touchdown run by Ted Androli called back on a penalty and appeared to be in business late in the fourth quarter after an impressive drive only to see it thwarted again by penalties.

The Knights finally got into the H&R Block Faribault red zone at the 10-yard line of Maple River but two infractions were called. An offensive face mask and a personal foul chop block negated that play and so they turned the ball over on downs.

Maple River took over on their 34 and appeared to be content to run the clock out as the clock was ticking under a minute. The Eagles decided to try a long pass and a pass interference call was made by an official 25-30 yards away from the play. The corner for Kenyon-Wanamingo appeared to me to be leaping in the air to go for the ball as the receiver ran farther downfield. I didn't see any contact but evidently the official did.

That got Maple River in go-for-it mode and, after a sack, they ran the ball to the middle of the field to set up the dramatic game-winning field goal.

Kenyon-Wanamingo scored on a 67-yard touchdown pass from Luke Rechtzigel to Gavin Roosen in the first quarter and a 33-yard Jake Whippl wingback trap for a score on the first drive of the second half to tie the game at 14 apiece.

Maple River scored on a 3-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter following a fake punt by the Knights giving the ball to the Eagles on the Kenyon-Wanamingo 24-yard line and a 6-yard pass later in the first quarter after a 10-play, 53-yard drive.

Knights linebackers Ted Androli and Calvin Steberg were in on tackle after tackle in the second half and just slammed the door on any running game for the Eagles. They rushed for eight yards in the third quarter and negative yardage on my ledger in the fourth but were able to complete 19 passes in the game.

Kenyon-Wanamingo finished their season 7-2 under first-year head coach Jake Wieme and captured their district championship.

Maple River will host Blue Earth Area on Saturday night in Mapleton thanks to the No. 5 seed Bucs upsetting previously unbeaten top seed Waterville-Elysian-Morristown 17-4 in Waterville on Tuesday night.