Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye United’s Taran Helget makes a catch in the second half of a Round 3 playoff game against Martin County West on Tuesday night at Sleepy Eye High School.
SLEEPY EYE — Taran Helget couldn’t have picked a better time to score the first varsity field goal of his career.
Sleepy Eye United defeated Martin County West on Helget’s 32-yard field goal with 9:39 left in the fourth quarter in a Class 3A football tournament quarterfinal game Tuesday night at Sleepy Eye High School. They won 9-8.
Helget typically catches passes and makes tackles at SEU, but this year the 6-4 also plays kickoffs. One thing he hasn’t been able to do this season is shoot for field goal tries.
But Helget was ejected on his first try of the year after SEU head coach Brent Kucera called a timeout at the MCW 15-yard line on fourth down.
As for whether he knew the timeout would lead to a field goal try, Helgett said, “I had no clue.” “When I heard what he said, my eyes widened and I thought, ‘Oh, okay, I have to do my job.'”
The snap, spot and kick were excellent, giving Helget his first career field goal and giving SEU their first lead of the game.
“It felt good, the snap was good, the hold was good, and I just kicked it normally in practice. It felt normal,” Helget said.
The kick may have felt ordinary, but in a low-scoring playoff game where every point counted, it couldn’t have mattered more. SEU defeated MCW in a 36-30 shootout on October 4 early in the season.
This time it was a very different story.
“I actually thought it was going to be a low-scoring game,” Kucera said. “Last time we allowed some runs, but it was some individual plays in the last game. We didn’t concede any runs this time because they had some guys that were good in the run game. , which is what I expected, a low-scoring game.”
SEU quarterback Carson Uecker completed 11 of 17 passes for 81 yards and one touchdown, and Helget had four completions for 13 yards. Cody Schultz also caught three passes for 47 yards, including a 34-yard touchdown catch-and-run. Schultz also gained 39 yards on 12 carries.
Also for SEU, Gavin Fisher had 11 carries for 39 yards and two receptions for 12 yards, and Wyatt Pollard had two catches for nine yards.
SEU’s defense was led by Nick Tauer with eight tackles, Schultz had four tackles and Tucker Hara had an interception. Harla helped SEU beat MCW 36-30 earlier this year with an interception that ended in Helget’s game-winning field goal.
MCW quarterback Maddex Faber completed 10 of 16 passes for 73 yards, a touchdown, and one interception. Faber’s top target, Lucas Larsson, had six grabs for 48 yards and a touchdown. Berent Kosbab had 61 yards on 11 carries and Cameron Meyer had 39 yards on 15 carries.
The MCW defense was led by Faber with seven tackles, while Kosbab and Tory Paplow each had five tackles.
During MCW’s scoreless drive late in the first quarter, Kosbab fumbled, giving SEU the ball at its own 49-yard line. After a few short runs, Fisher made a nice 17-yard run early in the second quarter to get SEU to MCW’s 26-yard run. However, Fisher flicked the ball off his grip on the next run, giving the ball back to MCW. A fumbling recovery.
Despite the turnovers, MCW didn’t do any damage until late in the quarter. MCW was within SEU with 44 yards after Larson made two third-down catches of 14 and 9 yards. Kosbab then had runs of 11 and 13 yards, and Jacob Wilmes had two runs of 9 and 2 yards to lead the Mavericks. Despite forcing the Mavericks into a four-goal situation, SEU allowed Larson a 6-yard TD reception with 1:33 left in the first half. Meyer’s two-point conversion gave MCW an 8-0 lead.
After the touchdown, SEU managed to get the ball down the field and time was running out by the time three deep incompletions on fourth-and-10 from the MCW 34 left 9.4 seconds left. Uecker then threw short and Schultz got open on a screen play that resulted in a 34-yard catch and a run down the sideline for a touchdown as time expired in the first half.
“It was a set up screen pass, but I think those three plays helped (set it up),” Schultz said.
SEU’s only touchdown of the game was also a confidence booster for a team that had struggled to run the ball that far.
“I think that gave me and our team more confidence going into the second half,” Schultz said. “It was a good attitude change to know, ‘Now that we got the touchdown, we can do it again.’
SEU never actually put the ball in the end zone again, but they did put it in enough position to give Helget a field goal try early in the fourth quarter.
After a scoreless third quarter and a Helget field goal in the fourth, MCW put the ball back on the field and reached SEU 22 points. However, SEU stopped the Mavericks with a 4-2 run play, but turned the ball over. Down. Schultz then had three carries and got a first down on the third to seal the game.
MCW finished the season with a total of 4 wins and 5 losses.
SEU (6-3) will play Springfield (8-0) in the semifinals Saturday at 3 p.m.
“One of the most fun things in football is going into a very good, very highly ranked team and trying to upset it,” Kucera said.
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