Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye United’s Cody Schultz runs the ball during SEU’s prep football game with Windom Area on Saturday afternoon at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s High School.

SLEEPY EYE — Despite a pair of first-half pick six’s helping Windom Area lead 18-12, Sleepy Eye United ended the half in front and finished with 20 unanswered points for a 32-18 win in a Southwest District, South Subdistrict football game at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s High School.

SEU was playing without starting quarterback Caden Evers, who was out with an injury sustained in SEU’s loss to Martin County West on Oct. 6.

Wyatt Pollard stepped up behind center in place of Evers on Saturday and completed 4 of 7 passes for 51 yards. Two of Pollard’s passes were unfortunately hauled in by the Eagles, however, and taken for touchdowns.

After Windom Area struck first on a 32-yard TD reception by Tucker Renquist to go up 6-0 with 6:18 left in the first quarter, Jackson Anderson picked off Pollard in SEU territory and took it 20 yards for a 12-0 Eagles lead.

The SEU ground game got going, however, and saw Cody Schultz get his team on the board late in the first quarter on a 2-yard plunge. Schultz then helped SEU tie the game with 9:24 left in the half on a 7-yard TD run.

Schultz finished the game with 17 carries for 128 yards and three TDs.

“We expected to run the ball more a little bit today,” Schultz said. “And we did that and our line stepped up, it’s a collective effort.”

Jon Petermann led SEU with 32 carries for 147 yards but was held out of the end zone, while Pollard had 11 carries for 24 yards and a score.

SEU finished with 299 yards rushing to Windom Area’s 35, but Windom Area won the battle through the air with 179 yards passing from junior QB Quintin Tietz, who was 17 of 34 with a touchdown and two interceptions.

After SEU’s second TD of the day reset the game, Renquist spoiled SEU’s chance to go in front with an interception at the goal line. He then took it 99 yards for the pick six and 18-12 lead.

SEU was quick to bounce back from that as Talan Helget’s sideline grab of 30 yards put his team in the red zone. A few plays later, Pollard scored on a 1-yard keeper before Helget’s PAT gave SEU the 19-18 lead at half.

After a scoreless third quarter, SEU scored early in the fourth after Pollard found Gaige Bauer in the middle of the end zone for a 15-yard TD and 25-18 lead.

With the Eagles driving, Austin Uecker picked off his second pass of the day, this time in the SEU end zone with 7:56 left to play.

“I was just on my guy outside,” Uecker said of his second interception. “They snapped the ball, I just started going back, saw my guy going out and I was looking at the quarterback, saw him reading the inside guy doing an out again. I just saw his eyes going there, so I went there and he just made a bad throw and it went to me.”

That interception led to SEU pounding the wet ground with 14 runs, the 14th being Schultz’s third TD of the day on a 10-yard run to the left. Another PAT by Helget led to the final score.

While Peterman got more carries and yards, Schultz’s 7.5 yards-per-carry average led all players. He was also crucial in helping SEU pick up 39 first downs to Windom’s 15.

“It means a lot to me that they would hand the ball to me during those situations,” Schultz said. “We did good, we all did good.”

Pollard had a couple of passes he’d like to take back, but he made enough plays to keep SEU in the game and was aided by a powerful ground game and solid defense. Windom’s 18 points is the most SEU has allowed this season, but the defense only allowed the one first-quarter TD.

Uecker’s heads-up defense, which included an interception on Windom’s first drive of the day, helped SEU get some confidence back after an upset loss to MCW.

“Last game, we knew what we did wrong,” Uecker said. “We’ve been going into games thinking we can just show up and play, and you can’t do that as a good team. We kind of realized that after that loss and we came into this knowing that we had to play Sleepy Eye football.”

Schultz and Uecker also led the SEU defense in tackles with four apiece, while Brandon Braulick and Mark Anderson each had three.

SEU (6-1) now ends the regular season at Adrian on Wednesday night.