Winhawk Football Runway
(KWMN)- The Winona Senior High Winhawk Football team opened their sectional tournament campaign last night with a convincing victory over Albert Lea, 56-13.
Similar to the Winhawk’s season finale with Rochester Century, it was a game where the Winhawk’s showcased domination in all three facets of the game.
Head Coach for the Winhawks, John Cassellius said of the win, “I was impressed with the way we played, they played hard…I was proud of them…It’s good to see, scoring in a lot of ways.”
The offense rolled early behind a stellar performance from Dominic Davis as he crossed the pylons three times in the first half. Outside of a pick six from Aiden Falls in the first quarter, the offense was able to move the chains with ease all throughout the game.
After Davis trotted in his third and final touchdown in the first quarter, Cassellius opted to shut him down for the remainder of the night. An obvious decision with Davis’s injury woes throughout this season.
The defense followed suit, earning multiple first half turnovers and multiple first half touchdowns. While the special team’s unit didn’t lag behind, earning two touchdowns of their own. One being a 90-yard kick return touchdown from Jaden Blanck.
The game seemed over within the first 10 minutes of the game. By halftime, the Winhawk lead was 49-6, which proved to be quite beneficial for Cassellius. The large, early lead allowed for him to pull his starters much earlier than even he’d imagined.
Sophomore quarterback Deion Prolo, who Cassellius said was playing his best ball after the Rochester Century game, barely touched the field, if at all, after the first quarter.
“Yeah, you know, obviously we wanted him to do some of our things, but we also want him to be healthy going into our playoff run,” said Cassellius.
By the second half it was predominantly reserves players in for the Winhawks. It’s an interesting dynamic as a coach in this position, making the decision to stay healthy but still trying to keep the players ready for the next week. But Cassellius and the rest of the coaching staff planned for this, and it worked out perfectly in their favor,
“That was our plan, we wanted to get up fast, as fast as we can while still being respectful of our opponent but also get everyone on the sideline, on the field. And we did that,” Cassellius said.
Now, the attention will turn towards Kasson-Mantorville as the Winhawks will make the trip up to Kasson on Saturday, Oct. 29th. Kasson was one of two teams to hand the Winhawks a loss in the regular season. Yet, that game occurred in week two. Looking back to that game and looking at the team now, it’s easy to see that the Winhawks are not the same team that lost to Kasson two months ago.
The Winhawks have been playing their best football as of late. Scoring over 80 points and allowing under 40 points in the last two games combined. But those two games won’t matter without a win come Saturday.
Kasson comes into the game fresh off a first-round bye. Not to mention, one year removed from losing in the 2021 state championship game. They’ll be hungry, that much is clear. They also have a great ability to run the football. Kasson dominated the Winhawks in round one of this matchup by doing just that, running over them. It was also a game where the Winhawks were not only still searching for their offensive identity, but a game where the team was still fine tuning the mistakes. Both of which have improved mightily over the season.
The large outlier that Kasson will have to adjust to is one single player, Dominic Davis. Davis didn’t play in the first three games of the season, including this one against Kasson. With Davis back, it’s almost as if Kasson will be playing a completely different team than they did early in the season. That’s just how good Dominic Davis is.
After the first-round win, Cassellius was asked when the celebration stops, and the preparation begins, his response,
“8 O’clock (a.m.) tomorrow we have film.”
The Winhwaks travel to face Kasson-Mantorville in round two of the section 1 class AAAA tournament on Saturday, Oct. 29th. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. with coverage beginning at 12:30 p.m. Only on your home for the Winhawks, Real Country 101.5 FM 1380 AM.
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