Staff photo by Ari Selvey Cedar Mountain’s Jackson Guetter (1) avoids a tackle by Nicollet’s Talan Osborne (44) during Nine-man South District, West Subdistrict football game Friday at Nicollet High School.

NICOLLET — The offenses were rolling in spite of the rain as Cedar Mountain spoiled Nicollet’s Homecoming 43-22 in a Nine-man South District, West Subdistrict football game on Friday.

Cedar Mountain has now scored a combined 79 points over its past two games as it improves to 2-2 on the season.

“It’s Week 4, and our plays are just meshing better,” Cedar Mountain head coach Mike Freitag said. “I’ve got a lot of young kids out there, and we have three kids returning and we’re running a newer system. I think after those first three weeks, we had two really tough opponents and things are just meshing better.

“And we saw some things on film that we thought we could exploit. We knew they would try to stop our Wing-T Sweep, so we ran play-action and scored on that on the second possession. We’re doing a better job running the ball, the kids are just getting better and we’re building each week, getting better and better.”

Nicollet, meanwhile, drops to a 1-3 record. While the Raiders had some strong moments, especially during a 4-play, 63-yard drive that took just 29 seconds to cut the score to 37-22 late in the second half, Nicollet struggled to have a consistent offense at times.

“I think the biggest thing for us is just, play after play, doing our assignments,” Nicollet head coach Cory Jans said. “That’s something we talked about at half time and even going into the third and fourth quarter here. We need to do our job. There were a lot of times where there were some breakdowns. A penalty here, a bad snap there, some blocking breakdowns on some plays that are pretty basic and pretty common for us. We need to clean those things up.”

Defensively, it was a similar story for Nicollet, with Cedar Mountain getting some big plays on missed assignments.

“We gave up a couple big shots to blown man coverage,” Jans said. “We have a brand new defense in after we gave up a couple more than we thought we should. Just trying to put the players in a better position than we did last week. That’s one of those things execution-wise, we’ve just got to execute better.”

Cedar Mountain’s Jackson Guetter had another strong game for the Cougars, racking up 264 total yards and two touchdowns after earning 341 all-purpose yards with four touchdowns last week.

“It starts up front, making big holes,” Guetter said. “Really, the confidence up front is really helping us out right now.”

Guetter added six tackles and an interception defensively. Also for Cedar Mountain, Carson Schiller completed nine passes for 221 yards and four touchdowns, while Thomas Dahmes had four receptions for 167 yards and two touchdowns and three rushes for 41 yards and another TD. Stan Heiling had two receptions for 22 yards and a score. Defensively, Kody Wenisch had six tackles, three sacks and three tackles for loss, while Blake Koeiner and Schiller each hand nine tackles, with Schiller adding an interception.

For the Raiders, Henry Oscarson had two touchdowns passing and one rushing, while AJ Kramer and Carson Kettner each had a touchdown reception. Jordan Laven had two fumble recoveries, Kramer had one fumble recovery, and Jordan Goettlicher had a sack.

Guetter started the game off with a bang, taking the opening play 65 yards for a touchdown, then running in the 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead. After a stop defensively, Cedar Mountain went 91 yards, starting with a 23-yard run by Guetter and ending with a 62-yard pass from Schiller as Dahmes got behind the Nicollet defense for a score and a 15-0 lead.

Cedar Mountain continued to control the game as a sudden downpour hit the field, with Schiller getting an interception in the end zone to end an promising Nicollet drive. Laven got his first fumble recovery of the game as the slippery conditions caused a mishap on the snap, but Schiller got it right back two plays later as the ball hit the grass again on a fumble.

Both offenses stalled as the rain turned into a drizzle, but Cedar Mountain got back on the board with a 12-yard pass from Schiller to Guetter increased the lead to 21-0.

Nicollet finally got a score as Oscarson completed a 26-yard touchdown pass to Kramer with 1:10 remaining in the half. Nicollet took that momentum into the second half, with Oscarson connecting with Kettner for a 36-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 21-14.

Cedar Mountain responded with a field goal by Dahmes to increase the lead to 24-14, then went on a 73-yard drive going into the fourth quarter that saw Schiller and Dahmes connect for a 70-yard touchdown and increase the lead to 31-14. Another touchdown from Schiller to Heiling with 5:55 to go to put the Cougars up 37-14.

Nicollet executed its 26-second touchdown drive next, capped off with a 10-yard rush by Oscarson, but it wasn’t enough as the Cougars milked the clock down to 44 seconds on the next drive, adding 6 more points with a 32-yard touchdown rush by Dahmes to bring the score to 43-22. Guetter capped his day off with the game-sealing interception.

Cedar Mountain hosts Red Rock Central next Friday, while Nicollet hosts New Ulm Cathedral next Friday.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey
Cedar Mountain’s Jackson Guetter (1) avoids a tackle by Nicollet’s Talan Osborne (44) during Nine-man South District, West Subdistrict football game Friday at Nicollet High School.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey
Cedar Mountain’s Thomas Dahms gets behind the Nicollet defense and makes a catch during Nine-man South District, West Subdistrict football game Friday at Nicollet High School.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey
Nicollet’s Talan Osborne (44) follows a lead block by teammate Jordan Goettlicher (5) during Nine-man South District, West Subdistrict football game against Cedar Mountain Friday at Nicollet High School.