OWATONNA — The No. 3 seeded Austin football team showed some explosiveness on offense, but it wasn’t able to pull off the upset as it lost 62-41 to No. 2 seeded Owatonna in the Section 1AAAAA semifinals in Owatonna Saturday.

It is the fourth time in the last five years that the Huskies have ended Austin’s season, but Saturday’s game was by far the closest out of all of those contests.

“It’s moving forward. We still lost,” Austin head coach Brett Vesel said. “[Owatonna] is a good football team that has a chance to do some special things and our guys battled and they battled until the end.”

After trailing 35-14 late in the second quarter, the Packers (5-5 overall) found their stride. Tate Hebrink, who threw for 304 yards and four scores, hit Luke Hawkshead for a 22-yard TD pass with 1:39 left in the second quarter and after Austin stopped Owatonna on a quick three-and-out, the Packers went 66 yards in 30 seconds as Hebrink converted a five-yard TD run to bring Austin within 35-27 at halftime.

“We did some good things right before the half to come back, but it was a tough game on the defensive side tonight for whatever reason,” Vesel said. “They made some nice plays tonight [in the passing game] and they got better throughout the season.”

Hebrink pulled the Packers to within one score again in the second half when he found Gavin Owens, who had 175 receiving yards and three TDs, for a 40-yard TD strike to cut Owatonna’s lead to 41-34 with 3:01 left in the third quarter.

But the Huskies (8-1 overall) couldn’t be stopped on offense as they closed the game out with three more scoring drives. Jason Williamson had 288 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 40 carries for Owatonna and Noah Budach had four receiving TDs.

“They’ve got a pretty tough offense and you’ve got to give credit to Williamson, he’s a great running back. I hope he does well in the future and hopefully we can beat them next year,” Austin junior Hunter Guyette said. “Nobody likes losing, especially when it ends your season. We’re going to miss the seniors a lot and all I can say is next year we’re going to come at Owatonna twice as hard as we did tonight. We’re going to bring it to them and we’re going to get to state next year. Next year’s our year.”

Vesel credited Austin’s senior class for helping to steer the program in the right direction.

“I’m going to miss the seniors. They worked hard in the offseason and they worked hard for four years. It’s going to be hard to replace those guys,” Vesel said.

SCORING SUMMARY

Austin 0  27   7    7   —  41

Owatonna 7  28  13  14  —  62

First quarter

(O) Noah Budach 6 pass from Abe Havelka (Josh Nelson kick) (10 plays, 65 yards) 9:04

Second quarter

(A) Joe Seeman 22 run (Andrew Schumacher kick) (6 plays, 38 yards) 11:41

(O) Budach 10 pass from Havelka (Nelson kick) (7 plays, 80 yards) 10:01

(O) Williamson 6 run (Nelson kick) (4 plays, 43 yards) 7:16

(O) Williamson 15 run (Nelson kick) (4 plays, 51 yards) 4:34

(A) Gavin Owens 14 pass from Tate Hebrink (Schumacher kick) (2 plays, 78 yards) 4:02

(O) Alex Raichle 32 pass from Havelka (Nelson kick) (4 plays, 44 yards) 2:59

(A) Luke Hawkshead 22 pass from Hebrink (pass failed) (7 plays, 80 yards) 1:39

(A) Hebrink 5 run (Schumacher kick) (3 plays, 66 yards) :29

Third quarter

(O) Budach 10 pass from Havelka (run failed) (7 plays, 36 yards) 3:51

(A) Owens 40 pass from Hebrink (Schumacher) (2 plays, 60 yards) 3:01

(O) Budach 33 pass from Havelka (Nelson kick) (4 plays, 58 yards) 1:32

Fourth quarter

(O) Williamson 1 run (Nelson kick) (13 plays, 56 yards) 5:26

(A) Owens 18 pass from Hebrink (Schumacher kick) (6 plays, 55 yards) 4:02

(O) Williamson 42 run (Nelson kick) (4 plays, 61 yards) 2:16

AUSTIN STATS

Rushing: Joe Seeman, 16-for-127, TD; Tate Hebrink, 6-for-18

Passing: Hebrink, 17-for-36, 304, 4 TD, INT

Receiving: Owens, 9-for-175, 3 TDs; Hawkshead, 6-for-114, TD; Andrew Schumacher, 1-for-10; Connor Byron, 1-for-5

Defense: Peter Conner (1 fumble recovery); Logan Braaten (22 tackles)

Penalties: 8-for-70

OWATONNA

Rushing: 333

Passing: 213

Penalties: 11-for-125