Staff photo by Ari Selvey Cedar Mountain’s Cooper Freitag breaks a tackle during a District football game against Nicollet Wednesday at Nicollet high school.

NICOLLET — Behind a strong running game led by Cooper Freitag, Cedar Mountain came away with a convincing 49-13 victory over Nicollet on Wednesday night in a Nine-Man South District, West Subdistrict football game.

Freitag accounted for 240 yards on 19 carries and 39 of the Cougars’ 49 points, scoring six touchdowns, a two-point conversion and kicking an extra point. Carson Schiller was 10 for 17 through the air with 159 yards, with Branndon Pendleton catching three passes for 37 yards.

For the Raiders, Trenton Havemeier had one touchdown pass to Conner Martens, while Colton Rengstorf had a rushing touchdown.

The Cougars found their success in shutting down the Raiders’ offensive weapons and getting into the backfield.

“I just think, watching film, their stud is number 14, Martens,” Cedar Mountain head coach Dwane Jemmings said. “We just had to key out where he was and let our defensive line pin their ears back and go to town.”

Cedar Mountain scored a touchdown on each of their first five drives while not allowing Nicollet to score. First, Freiteg ran in for a 13-yard score, followed up by a 35-yard touchdown. Freitag punched it in from the 3 on the Cougars’ next drive, then ran it in from the 17. Finally, Schiller scampered for a 13-yard TD to put Cedar Mountain up 35-0. On Nicollet’s last drive of the half, Freitag intercepted the ball to allow the Cougars to kneel out the half.

Nicollet came out of the second half with its first score of the game, with Havemeier throwing a pass short left to Martens, who took it 30 yards for the score. Cedar Mountain responded with a six-play drive that ended in a 35-yard power run by Freitag. Nicollet scored once more in the final minute of the game with Rengstorf’s rushing touchdown, which was set up by a pair of 30-yard runs by Kobe Truebenbach to put the final score at 49-13.

Cedar Mountain finishes its regular season with a 5-3 record and is looking to make a run in section playoffs.

“The section is wide open,” Jemmings said. “We beat Red Rock Central, Cathedral beat us and Red Rock beat Cathedral. Renville County West’s got a nice team. It’s about playing good football at the right time. We made a statement here tonight. The sky’s the limit with us. We’re just going to be ready to play football. That’s been the goal all season, is being section champs, and that starts Monday.”

The Section 2, Nine-Man playoffs begin Tuesday. Seedings will be released Thursday morning.

Nicollet finishes its regular season with a 2-6 record.