St. Louis Park, MN – Behind senior Cole Drill’s 251 total yards, sophomore Blake Reinbold’s 106 yards rushing, and a very stingy defense, visiting Mound Westonka defeated Benilde-St. Margaret’s 34-7 on a rare Wednesday night game due to MEA week.

Chase Lee’s 21-yard FG opened the scoring for the White Hawks following a 12-play drive that took almost half of the first quarter. The Westonka defense would hold the Red Knights to a three-and-out on their first possession, giving the offense great field position at their own 43-yard line. However, a jet sweep for JT Kimbrough went awry when the handoff was fumbled and recovered by the Red Knights in Westonka territory. BSM would turn it into a touchdown eight plays later when Sean Washington went around the left end, giving the Red Knights a 7-3 advantage just minutes into the second quarter.

Westonka drove inside the red zone on their next series, but a personal foul penalty pushed them outside field goal range forcing a turnover-on-downs. Nonetheless, the White Hawks defense came up with a three-and-out forcing another punt, which senior linebacker Roman Larsen blocked, giving Westonka the ball at the BSM 24-yard line. Drill would waste little time hitting Carter Kleinsasser across the middle of the field for a 24-yard score. Lee’s extra point reclaimed the lead at 10-7 with 5:28 left to play in the first half. “Carter has been a huge part of our defense all season taking half the field away on a consistent basis. It was great to see him make a big play on offense tonight,” said White Hawks Head Coach Nick David.

The defense showed their dominance at the start of the second half, forcing a punt. Drill would lead the White Hawks on a 69-yard drive culminating with his 3-yard touchdown run. Senior defensive lineman Dylan Sloan turned up the heat in the 3rd quarter causing Red Knights quarterback, Lucas Guggenberger, to throw early on every passing play. Sloan finally got to Guggenberger on the next BMS possession, sacking him from behind for an 8-yard loss. On the White Hawks ensuing possession, Reinbold took a handoff, hesitated behind the line-of-scrimmage before finding a gap up the middle, and then cut right, getting a great block from senior wide receiver Max Kraay along the sideline, before outracing Kimbrough to the end zone for a 47-yard touchdown. Lee would convert the extra point, giving the White Hawks a 24-7 lead. Lee would also hit a career long 36-yard FG with 8:34 remaining in the game, pushing the lead to 27-7. Reinbold would tack on a late score from a yard out with 3:42 to play creating the final margin of 34-7. “This was one of the more complete games we have put together all season. It was fun to see the offense firing on all cylinders tonight,” said offensive coordinator Mike Wallace.

The Red Knights were held to 21 total yards in the 2nd half. Larsen (two blocked punts) and Sloan were big contributors, but senior linebacker Cole Munsterteiger continued his stellar play recording double-digit tackles for the third consecutive game finishing with 10. Senior Dylan Holappa helped control the line-of-scrimmage tallying six tackles and three tackles-for-loss. Junior safety Brandt Tebbs had 8 tackles, while Sloan and Larsen each finished with five tackles and two TFL’s. John Seemann had four tackles in the trenches. Joe Sluka and Dawson Leinfelder (2 TFL’s) both had three tackles. Sluka, Kimbrough, and Mason Sebasky each had a pass defended.

Offensively, Drill threw for 161 yards completing 19 passes in 31 attempts and the lone TD. He also carried the ball 16 times for 90 yards. Reinbold tallied 106 yards on the ground on 13 carries. Kraay led the receiving corps with four catches for 32 yards and Kleinsasser had three receptions and a game-high 52 yards receiving. Kimbrough added 32 yards on three catches.

Westonka returns home this Tuesday night for the Quarterfinal Round of the MSHSL Section 6AAAA Football playoffs as they face Delano for the fourth time in the last two seasons. Delano defeated the White Hawks in early October, 35-31, as the Tigers scored a touchdown with just 27 seconds remaining in the game at Haddorff Field. Delano mounted a 21-point comeback to pull out the victory. The game time is set for 6:00pm. The quarterfinal winner will play against the #1 seeded Orono Spartans at Pesonen Stadium on Saturday, 10/26 at 3:00pm. “We have had some really good battles against Delano the past couple of years. Coach Peterson does a great job over there. We are excited to play them again in a very meaningful game on Tuesday for a chance to move on to the Semifinals,” noted David.