Mankato West has been dominating the stat sheet - and now, finally, they’re winning the battle on the scoreboard as well.  The Scarlets had two more drives of 70+ yards, giving them four for the game… but this time those drives ended in touchdowns.

That said, about the only similar thing about those two drives was the scoring combination - Ray Teachout to Aaron Richter.  The first pass came at the end of a 13-play drive; the second was a 64-yard bomb that put West ahead for the first time in the game.

Early in the third quarter, Kwaku Amoah finally broke loose for St. Michael-Albertville, plunging through the middle and dashing 47 yards, to inside the Mankato West 10.  On the next play, Jason Dehmer swept around right end for the score.  Apart from those moments, though, the Knights have had trouble getting any kind of offensive momentum.

Overall, though, West has been the better team - they’ve outgained STMA 303-139, and had 142 yards of offense in the third quarter alone.

QUICK UPDATE: STMA fumbled on the first play of the fourth quarter; on the very next play, Teachout hit Richter again, from 19 yards out, and it’s now 24-14, Mankato West.

The Scarlets have had their chances to go ahead, but just can’t take advantage.  First, they spent more than five minutes on another 14-play drive, riding Paul Berndt all the way down inside the STMA 10, but the Knights defense stopped Ray Teachout on the one-foot line on fourth down, and Mankato West came away with no points.

After a STMA punt from its own end zone, Mankato West started at the Knights’ 25, but a third-down fumble killed that drive in the red zone, as well.  West has had three possessions in the STMA red zone, but has come away with only three points.

For St. Michael-Albertville, the most important halftime task will be finding a way to stop Berndt.  The Scarlets are running out of the spread offense, giving that dive-option look out of the shotgun, and the Knights are having trouble stopping the dive portion of that play.

Two impressive first-quarter drives, one for each team, have both teams on the board.

St. Michael-Albertville set up its first drive at the Mankato West 44, following an interception by sophomore DB Ben Schmitz.  From there, the Knights slogged twelve plays to the end zone, including a pair of fourth-down conversion runs by quarterback Jason Dehmer, who threw a touchdown pass to finish the drive.  Dehmer has been his team’s best rusher, he plays safety on defense, he does the punting - what can’t he do?

Mankato West responded with a four-minute-plus drive of its own, a 14-play possession that went ended in a 20-yard field goal. The Scarlets offense is based on the three of QB Ray Teachout’s limbs - both legs and his right arm.  Mankato West likes to line up a spread formation, and then run a QB option, or have Teachout step back and find a receiver along the sidelines.

The Knights will start the second quarter in Mankato West territory, following their second interception on a tipped pass.

All in all, this was a pretty dominant performance from KMS.  Both RB Joel Bauman and FB Mitch Hagen went over 100 yards rushing.  QB Kevin Steinhaus completed only three passes, but two went for touchdowns - a 49-yarder and a 34-yarder, both to TE Taylor Freetly.  And the Fighting Saints defense, apart from a first-quarter 73-yard touchdown, held firm the entire game.  Perhaps the best stat on the defense is this one: until a fourth-quarter, second-team-in drive for Springfield, KMS hadn’t allowed a rushing play of more than 11 yards. The Saints also had a fumble recovery and three interceptions in the game.

KMS will face Royalton for the Class 1A state championship at 1:00 pm, the day after Thanksgiving at the Prep Bowl.  Neither team has ever won a state title.

It took the Fighting Saints a couple of second-half possessions to get untracked, but they finally began moving the ball again towards the end of the quarter.  KMS put together an eight-play, 63-yard drive - and of course, did the whole thing on the ground.  Joel Bauman swept right for ten yards and a touchdown to finish off the possession; the junior now has over 100 yards rushing, along with two touchdowns.  The Saints have 17 first downs, and all 17 came on the ground; as a team, they’ve rushed for 261 yards.

On the other sideline, the Tigers just aren’t moving the ball.  They can’t get much movement up front to run the ball, and their aerial attack has fallen flat.  KMS held Springfield to just 52 yards and two first downs in the third quarter.