Mavericks fall in defensive playoff battle to SEU

ABOVE: Martin County West’s Berent Kosbab (21) runs the ball in the first quarter of Tuesday’s Section 3A playoff football game against Sleepy Eye United at Sleepy Eye High School. Photo by Travis Rosenau/ New Ulm Journal.

SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye United’s Talan Helget connected on a 32-yard field goal with 9:39 left in the fourth quarter to help lift his team to a 9-8 win over Martin County West Tuesday night in a Section 3A Football Tournament quarterfinals game at Sleepy Eye High School.

While Helget is typically catching passes and making tackles for SEU, the 6-4 athlete has also been kicking off this year. One thing he hasn’t done this season is line up for a field-goal try.

But at the MCW 15-yard-line on fourth down and after head coach Brent Kucera took a timeout, Helget was sent out for his first try of the year.

“I had no clue,” Helget said of whether he knew the timeout would lead to a field-goal try. “When I heard him say it, my eyes got big and I was like, ‘Woah, well, OK, I’ve got to do my job.’”

SEU defeated MCW earlier in the season on Oct. 4 in a 36-30 shootout.

This time it was a much different story.

“I thought it was going to be a low-scoring game actually,” Kucera said. “Last time, we gave up some points but it was a few individual plays last game, we didn’t give them up this time. They had more, couple players back that were more for the run game, so this was what I expected, a low-scoring game.”

SEU quarterback Carson Uecker completed 11 of 17 passes for 81 yards and a touchdown, with four completions to Helget for 13 yards. Cody Schultz also caught three passes for 47 yards, including a 34-yard touchdown catch and run. Schultz also had 12 carries for 39 yards.

Also for SEU, Gavin Fischer had 11 carries for 39 yards and two receptions for 12 yards, while Wyatt Pollard had two catches for 9 yards.

The SEU defense was led by Nick Tauer’s eight tackles, while Schultz had four tackles and Tucker Haala had an interception. Haala, who also had an interception to help SEU seal its 36-30 win over MCW earlier in the year, saw this game’s interception end with Helget’s go-ahead field goal.

MCW quarterback Maddex Faber completed 10 of 16 passes for 73 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Faber’s top target Lucas Larson had six grabs for 48 yards and a touchdown. Berent Kosbab had 11 carries for 61 yards, while Cameron Meyer had 15 carries for 39 yards.

The MCW defense was led by Faber’s seven tackles, while Kosbab and Torrey Paplow each had five tackles.

With MCW driving late in a scoreless first quarter, a Kosbab fumbled gave SEU the ball at its own 49-yard line. After a few short runs, Fischer broke off a nice run of 17 yards early in the second quarter to get SEU to the MCW 26. Fischer had the ball knocked out of his grip on his next run, however, giving MCW the ball back on a fumble recovery.

Despite the turnover, no damage was done by MCW until later in the quarter. After a pair of third-down catches by Larson of 14 and 9 yards, MCW was in SEU territory at the 44. Kosbab then got runs of 11 and 13 yards before two runs by Jacob Wilmes of 9 and 2 yards set the Mavericks up for a first-and-goal from the 8. Despite forcing the Mavericks into a fourth-and-goal situation, SEU allowed a 6-yard TD reception by Larson with 1:33 left in the half. A 2-point conversion run by Meyer put MCW up 8-0.

SEU managed to get the ball down the field after that touchdown with time ticking away before three deep incompletions left just 9.4 seconds on the clock on fourth-and-10 from the MCW 34. Uecker went short this time with his throw, finding Schultz open on a screen play that was turned into a 34-yard catch and run down the sideline for a touchdown as time in the first half expired.

After a scoreless third quarter and Helget’s field goal in the fourth, MCW did work the ball back down the field and got to the SEU 22. SEU stopped the Mavericks on a fourth-and-2 run play, however, to turn the ball over on downs. Schultz then had three carries, his third picking up the first down to seal the game.

MCW ends its season with a 4-5 record overall.

SEU (6-3) will travel to Springfield (8-0) for a semifinals matchup at 3 p.m. Saturday.