The Austin football team was in the running for a major upset, but it simply ran out of magic in a loss to No. 9 ranked Mankato West by a score of 33-28 in Art Hass Stadium Friday night.

The Packers (1-5 overall) made things interesting when Hunter Guyette threw a 75-yard half-back pass to Gavin Owens for a TD to pull Austin within 33-28 with 3:46 left in the game. The Packers were able to stop the Scarlets (5-1 overall) at their own 25 after Owens made a big tackle on fourth down.

Austin’s final drive ended when quarterback Nate Murphy was sacked on consecutive plays and his final throw on fourth down sailed out of bounds.

“The number one thing is we improved,” Austin head coach Brett Vesel said. “I told those guys at halftime we weren’t in the game because Mankato West was playing like garbage. Mankato West was playing really well and we were playing really well too. We made some great strides and I’m proud of the kids’ effort. They fought to the end.”

Austin took a 21-20 lead after Owens hauled in a six-yard TD from Murphy with 8:14 left in the third quarter and the Packers drove all the way down to Mankato West’s 28-yard line with a chance to go up two scores when Connor Byram couldn’t hang on to a fourth down pass. Byram had a big night as he finished with 117 yards receiving, while also playing defensive end.

“For us seniors, we’ve been working on this for many years and we’ve put in so much time. We want to put it all together and win these games for the last year,” Byram said. “We’ve improved a lot and we’ve been improving all season. We stuck with Northfield last week in the first half and we let them get away in the second half a little bit. This week we stayed in there the whole game and it came down the wire. We’ve just need to fix some of our slight problems to keep those big plays from happening.”

West’s offense made several big plays as the Scarlets had four scoring plays that went more than 50 yards. Austin made its impact on special teams as Guyette ran a kick-off back 98-yards for a score in the first quarter and Andrew Chesak blocked and recovered a punt for a TD to bring Austin within 20-14 at the break.

Austin played the entire second half without Joe Seeman, who was banged up with an injury.

“We finished the game without Joe Seeman, who’s our best player and that’s unbelievable. He’s a great football player, we played without him and we still went right down to the wire,” Vessel said.

SCORING SUMMARY

West 13  7  6  7  —  33   

Austin 7   7  7  7  —  28

First quarter

(M) Melik Davis 54 run (Sam Ambrose kick) 11:09

(A) Hunter Guyette 98 return (Andrew Schumacher kick) (1 play, 98 yards) 10:55

(M) Jack Foster 79 run (kick failed) (2 plays, 86 yards) 6:41

Second quarter

(M) Jon Sikel 6 pass from Foster (Ambrose kick) (1 plays, 61 yards) 3:36

(A) Andy Chesak 0 punt block return (Schumacher kick) (9 plays, 72 yards) 8:14

Third quarter

(A) Gavin Owens 6 pass from Nate Murphy (Schumacher kick) (9 plays, 72 yards) 8:14

(M) Foster 72 run (kick failed) (1 plays, 72 yards) 0:00

Fourth quarter

(M) Foster 2 run (Ambrose kick) (10 plays, 50 yards) (Ambrose kick) 3:58

(A) Owens 75 pass from Guyette (Schumacher kick) (1 plays, 75 yards) 3:46

AUSTIN STATS

Rushing: Hunter Guyette, 6-for-48; Nate Murphy, 23-for-37; Joe Seeman, 8-for-27

Passing: Murphy, 8-for-17, 128, TD; Guyette, 1-for-1, 75, TD

Receiving: Connor Byram, 7-for-117; Owens, 3-for-86, 2 TDs

Defense: Andy Chesak blocked punt, TD

Penalties: 5-for-30

WEST STATS

Rushing: 248

Passing: 97

Penalties: 6-for-40