Osakis uses turnovers to run past New York Mills

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The Osakis football team knew from a loss to KMS in week one how impossible it is to overcome five turnovers in a game. Now New York Mills does too.

The Silverstreaks created a handful of takeaways on Friday night as they ran past the Royals 35-14 to even their record at 1-1 on the young season.

"We talked about it as a coaching staff that this was a must-win game for us," head coach Bill Infanger said. "We didn't like where our season was going if we went 0-2 going into the meat of our schedule, so this is a huge win."

Osakis wasted no time setting the tone. Junior quarterback Jordan Frederick capped off the opening drive with a touchdown run that made it 6-0 early. The Royals moved the ball deep into Osakis territory on the ensuing possession before Hunter Johnson read a pass perfectly and collected the first of four interceptions on the night for Osakis. Senior Brian Thorstad then went 51 yards for a touchdown on the very next play.

"I noticed they were going to probably pass it to him," Johnson said. "I just picked up that interception and that pretty much picked up our whole team. I felt like that helped us a lot."

The Royals didn't touch the ball again until the score was 21-0. The Osakis coaches noticed that New York Mills was playing 15 yards off the ball on the ensuing kickoff. The Silverstreaks took advantage of that, executing an onside kick that gave them the ball right back. Thorstad added his second touchdown a few plays later after Kilar Zimmel made a nice catch around the one-yard line to set it up.

New York Mills could never recover from that. Frederick added another touchdown run in the third quarter before Hunter Scherr put the finishing touches on the win with a 21-yard scoring run in the fourth.

In the end, Osakis' five takeaways to just one turnover was the biggest difference in the game. Zimmel, Drew Fearing and Trey Erie all joined Johnson with interceptions. That made getting to .500 after two games a lot easier on a team that still has some lofty goals set for itself.

"That was really important," Zimmel said. "We needed to get inside their heads like KMS got inside our heads. We turned the table and got those turnovers. When there's that many turnovers, you can see it. We lost with that many turnovers but we also win when we force that many."

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