MANKATO — The Packers went head-to-head against the No. 1 ranked football team in Class ‘AAAA’ and a quarterback who could be playing for the Gophers in the near future in Mankato Friday.

Austin contained the quarterback — Manakto West senior Phillip Nelson — but they couldn’t stop the Scarlets’ big plays in a 49-21 loss.

Nelson, who has committed to the University of Minnesota, threw for just 76 yards and two short scores before being taken out of the game at halftime and one of his passes was dropped by one of his receivers and picked off by Austin’s Andrew Allen.

Allen made his interception with Austin trailing 14-0 and he ran it back 89 yards deep into West territory, but a penalty moved the ball back to the 32-yard line and the Packers went four-and-out.

Nelson did have a 39-yard run for a score down the right sideline that made it 21-0 with 2:13 left in the first quarter, but most of the damage was done by the rest of West’s team.

Tyler Resner opened the game with a 75-yard touchdown run and after Austin went three-and-out, Hunter Friesen, who scored four touchdowns, ran a punt back 75 yards to make it 14-0 just three minutes into the game.

Austin didn’t get a first down on its first five possessions, while West (2-0 overall, 1-0 Big Nine) finished with four scoring plays of over 35 yards.

“I wasn’t pleased with the way we started offensively,” Austin head coach Matt Schmit said. “We were starstruck to begin with and we didn’t line up correctly. Those were basic plays we were running, but they settled down and started executing better.”

Austin (0-2 overall, 0-1 Big Nine) finally found its offense at the end of the first half when it drove 62 yards in just under two minutes against West’s first team defense. Sean Coffey finished the drive with a 36-yard dart to Marcus Stoulil for a score with 17 seconds left in the first half.

Coffey added another scoring strike against West’s reserves in the second half by faking a screen underneath and throwing a 20-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Kasak over the top.

Coffey went 6-for-15 with 91 yards, two scores and no turnovers.

“It was a good experience for Sean. I thought he played pretty well,” Schmit said “He took a couple of big shots and he made a couple of mistakes, but he knew what they were.”

While the Scarlets put out their second string defense in the second half, Austin may have found a new running back. Will Davenport, a 6-2, 176-pound junior, had a key 21-yard run to set up Kasak’s touchdown and he busted off a 40-yard touchdown run down the left sideline to make it 49-21 with 3:36 left in the third quarter.

“We had to get our heads together and everything (after falling behind) and we came out in the second half working hard,” said Davenport, who ran for 87 yards. “We didn’t give up and we did a good job (in the second half). We’re getting somewhere.”

While West has a potent offense, the Packers didn’t do themselves any favors in the first half. Three of West’s second quarter scores came on drives of less than 25 yards as Austin’s special teams couldn’t win the field position battle.

Austin was stopped on fourth down a few times while trying to run the ball out of punt formation.

“When you run the rugby punt and have all the coverage to the right and punt it to the left, that’s not good,” Schmit said. “Our fake punt is also not supposed to be run four times a game. It better be open if you’re going to take it.”

While the Packers have now lost 12 games in a row dating back to two years ago, they’re not feeling sorry for themselves.

“We’re keeping our heads up, we’ll keep practicing hard and we’ll keep going,” Davenport said. “We’ve got to work together as a family and keep doing our job. That’s what we’re going to do.”

SCORING SUMMARY

Austin 0 7 14 0 — 21

West 21 28 0 0 — 49

First quarter

(MW) Tyler Resner 75 run (kick good) (1 play, 75 yards) 11:29

(MW) Hunter Friesen 75 punt return (kick good) (1 play, 75 yards) 9:35

(MW) Phillip Nelson 39 run (kick good) (10 plays, 76 yards) 2:13

Second quarter

(MW) Friesen 9 pass from Nelson (kick good) (1 play, 9 yards) 11:56

(MW) Friesen 14 pass from Nelson (kick good) (3 plays, 15 yards) 8:46

(MW) Friesen 60 run (kick good) (1 play, 60 yards) 5:41

(MW) Jordan Hage 10 run (kick good) (4 plays, 24 yards) 2:28

(A) Marcus Stoulil 36 pass from Sean Coffey (Zach Wessels kick) (5 plays, 62 yards) :17

Third quarter

(A) Gabe Kasak 20 pass from Coffey (Wessels kick) (6 plays, 65 yards) 6:53

(A) Will Davenport 46 run (Wessels kick) (3 plays, 60 yards) 3:36

Fourth quarter

No scoring

AUSTIN STATS

Passing: Coffey, 6-for-15, 91, 2 TD; Allen, 0-for-1; Ryan Synoground, 0-for-4, INT

Receiving: Stoulil, 3-for-60, TD; Kasak, 2-for-28, TD; Lukes, 1-for-3

Rushing: Davenport, 13-for-87, TD; Bret Lukes, 3-for-8; Anthony Condit, 4-for-3; Andrew Allen, 2-for-1; Gabe Gerstner, 2-for-0; Marcus Stoulil, 1-for-(-3); Josh Karsjeens, 1-for-(-3); Coffey, 3-for-(-17)

Penalties: 9-for-46

WEST STATS

Passing: Nelson, 8-for-11, 76, 2 TD, INT; Ryan Schlichte, 2-for-4, 13; Derek Frentz, 1-for-1, 6

Receving: Hunter Friesen, 2-for-23, 2 TD; Scott McKissick, 2-for-20; Alex Knutson, 2-for-17; Konor Severns, 1-for-8; Will Clausen, 1-for-6; Nick Nelson, 1-for-6; Blake Hockert, 1-for-5

Rushing: Resner, 7-for-103, TD; Friesen, 2-for-57, TD; Nelson, 2-for-47, TD; Hage, 8-for-40, TD; Connor Watts, 3-for-14; Frentz, 3-for-4; Alex Knutson, 1-for-(-1); Schlichte, 5-for-(-6)

Penalties: 14-for-90