Football: Zumbrota-Mazeppa crumbles against K-M

ZUMBROTA — Kasson-Mantorville running back Broc Berge is a load to handle. Zumbrota-Mazeppa found that out on the first play of the game.

Berge rumbled to a 65-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage for the KoMets Friday, and the Cougars had little answer for K-M’s offense in the first half of a 54-7 loss.

“He’s a tough one to bring down,” Z-M head coach Willie Rauen said. “Not too many guys are going to bring him down one-on-one.”

The Cougars (2-2, 2-0 HVL Gold) trailed 41-7 at halftime, allowing three first-half rushing touchdowns to quarterback Riley Donovan, who finished with nine rushes for 95 yards. Berge had nine carries for 155 yards and the opening touchdown.

Z-M did put up a fight in the second half, holding K-M (4-0, 2-0 HVL Blue) scoreless in the third quarter, a fact that was solace on a tough night for Rauen.

“I was really happy with how we played in the second half, especially to start the third quarter,” he said. “Our kids didn’t hang their heads or quit. … That was the biggest thing of the night that I was happy about.”

Z-M also dealt with more injuries to starters. Senior receiver Kevin Niebuhr sat out with knee pain and senior Nathan Bennett missed much of the game with a shoulder injury suffered in the second quarter. Senior quarterback Nathaniel Rauen and senior running back Jordan Thompson are already out with season-ending injuries.

“When it rains it pours,” Willie Rauen said. “We’ve just had a really bad run of injuries this year for some reason. It doesn’t help that we’re not very deep.”

The KoMets scored twice more in the fourth quarter, the final touchdown coming with 37 seconds left in the game to end the rout. K-M had 506 yards of total offense, 366 of those yards coming on the ground.

The Cougars finished with 150 yards of total offense. Kurt Gadient was 8 of 13 passing for 130 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Senior Tyler Quam scored Z-M’s lone touchdown on a nice scrambling play from Gadient that ended in a 63-yard pass to pull the Cougars to 21-7 with 1 minute, 52 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Z-M takes on Goodhue next Friday in Goodhue, while Kasson-Mantorville will travel to La Crescent.

Tags: sports, prep, football, zumbrota, mazeppa