Faribault Football Ends Season with Win

Typically a high school football team only ends their season with a win if they are State Champions.  This football season has been anything but typical.  The Faribault Falcons defeated Red Wing 26-6 at Bruce Smith Field tonight to finish their season with a win.

The game was listed on the MSHSL website as a Section 1 Class 4A game with no advancement.  Faribault was as hot a team as any in southern Minnesota finishing their season on a 4 game winning streak .  The Falcons were 5-2.  Red Wing finished their year 0-7.

The Wingers had their best game of the season against a Faribault team that averaged 44 points and gave up an average of 6 points in the previous three victories.

The game got started late because Red Wing had bus problems on the way to Faribault.  Following a quick three and out to start the game by the Wingers the Falcons got the ball to start their first offensive series on the Red Wing 42 yard line.

For some reason they had trouble holding on to the football.  The first quarter ended with no score.

Faribault scored with 8:43 to go in the first half on a quarterback Hunter Nelson 1 yard keeper.  The Alex Gardner two point run attempt was no good for the two point conversion.

With 1:28 to go in the half Gardner ran 12 yards for a score.  Nelson completed a pass to AJ Worrall for the two points.  Falcons had a 14-0 halftime lead.

Faribault held Red Wing to 8 yards rushing and 88 yards passing.  The Falcons ran for 39 yards and Nelson threw for 103 in the first half.  Total yardage was 152 to 96 in favor of Faribault.

The Falcons moved down the field to start the second half but could not punch the ball in after getting to the 4 yard line.

Faribault got to start their next offensive series at the Red Wing 38 yard line.  With 6:37 to go in the third quarter Nelson hit reciever junior Jordan Klecker on a 42 yard touchdown pass.  A two point completed jump pass from Nelson to senior John Palmer was called back due to a penalty.  Another pass attempt was unsuccessful.

The Falcons were score their final touchdown with 10:22 to go in the game on a 5 yard Gardner run.  The senior tried to run in another 2 point conversion and was not successful.

Faribault finished the game with 382 total yards of offense.  Red Wing had 209 total yards.  Both teams ran 57 plays.  The Wingers finished with 91 yards rushing, 118 yards passing.  The Falcons had 228 yards through the air, 154 yards on the ground.

Red Wing had the ball 25:33.  Faribault 22:27.

The Falcons rolled up 20 first downs to the Wingers 13.

Faribault was 6 of 10 on third down.  Red Wing 5 of 13.

Hunter Nelson finished the game 11 of 23 for 228 yards.  Gardner ran for 93 yards on 14 carries.

Junior receive AJ Worrall had 4 receptions for 81 yards,  Senior Carter Breitenfeldt caught 3 balls for 83 yards.  Klecker with 2 catches for 57 yards.  Senior Taylor Day caught two balls for 7 yards.

Linebacker senior John Palmer led the team in tackles again with 7.  Senior lineman Owen Ellendson had 6 tackles including a sack.  Sophomore Ian Ehlers was in on a sack according to the official statistics.  Junior Matthias Lenway also had a sack.

The ten seniors on the Faribault team were named our Malecha's Auto Body Crunch Time Faribault players of the game.

Carter Breitenfeldt, John Palmer, Alex Gardner, Gael Ramirez, Nick Ehlers, Cade McCusker, Cael Casteel, Owen Ellendson, Tyler Gillen, Alex Leet.

These guys provided some great leadership in a very weird year.  When the season started football was going to be played in March.  Then it got moved back to fall.