Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm High School quarterback Ayden Jensen breaks loose for a touchdown run during the first quarter of a prep football game with Waseca on Thursday night at NUHS.

NEW ULM — In the first half of their South Central District game against Waseca, the New Ulm Eagles scored on four of their seven offensive possessions against Waseca, the eighth-ranked team in Class AAA.

Unfortunately, the Bluejays scored on all six of their first-half possessions and went on to score on all 11 of their possessions in the game and went on to top New Ulm 81-36 Thursday night at New Ulm High School.

Ty Frederick scored two touchdowns on runs of 40 and 10 yards. Quarterback Ayden Jensen scored on runs of 61 and 4 yards and also tossed a 54-yard touchdown pass to James Osborne on New Ulm’s first possession of the game.

Waseca quarterback Oliver O’Brien scored on runs of 60, 4 and 10 yards.

Damarius Russell scored twice for the Bluejays.

“I am proud of the way that we battled overall especially in the first half,” New Ulm coach Derek Lieser said. “We talked about not coming out and being timid or afraid of the fact that they are a high-caliber team and we showed that in the first half.”

The Eagles, who play next Friday at Belle Plaine, shocked the Bluejays when Jensen connected with James Osborne for a 54-yard touchdown pass.

Waseca quickly matched that on their first play from scrimmage when O’Brien broke lose for a 60-yard touchdown run.

But the Eagles counter-punched on their next offensive series when Jensen broke lose for a 61-yard scoring run and a 14-7 New Ulm lead at the 8:11 mark.

Waseca scored on their next two series before the Eagles hit pay dirt on a 40-yard gallop from Ty Frederick to cut the lead to 23-21. But three touchdowns by Waseca — one aided by a blocked punt and the other by an interception — increased the lead to 47-21 before Frederick scored on a 10-yard run to end the half to pull New Ulm to within 47-29.

“In talking with [Waseca head coach] Brad Wendland, he said that these are the most points that they have given up all year,” Lieser said as the previous high was 21 scored by Jordan. “That is a compliment to our kids. We are doing some nice things offensively with a lot of young kids playing. Our line did a real nice job, especially with three sophomores — Hunter Lewandowski, Austin Nosbush and Bodee Schmiesing — did a nice job.”

Unfortunately, the Eagles’ defense could not stop the high-powered Bluejays’ offense, who scored three touchdowns on three possessions to make it a 67-29 lead after three quarters before Jensen capped off the scoring for New Ulm with a 4-yard fourth-quarter run.

“We still have a lot of things to clean up and mistakes to try and eliminate because when you get playoff football, we cannot expect to win when we are making the same mistakes,” Lieser said.