The Upsala/Swanville Area Patriots hosted the Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg Fighting Saints Wednesday, Oct. 19, for their regular season finale.

The Patriots were looking to finish with a winning record on the season.

KMS ran the ball very effectively in the first half while stopping the USA run game. Early in the second half, USA opened up the passing game, utilizing their big receivers to force the KMS defense on their back feet. USA showed poise on both sides of the ball as they scored three times in the second half while allowing zero to take the win 25-14.

Early in the first quarter, it looked like USA was going to take an early lead. The defense forced an early three and out, then blocked the punt and recovered the ball at the 20 yard line.

However, the Patriots fumbled the snap on the first play after the blocked punt, then fumbled it away on the second.

KMS pounded the ball all the way down the field with senior running back Jonah Johnson. Johnson finished the drive with a 10-yard touchdown run. A successful extra point gave KMS an early 7-0 lead.

USA would strike back very quickly. Austin Mollner ran 67 yards for a touchdown on the first play after the kickoff. Brock Cichon kicked the extra point to tie the game at 7-7.

The Fighting Saints dominated the line of scrimmage in the first half as Johnson was able to run very effectively. He would score from one yard out at the 8:26 mark in the second quarter. The extra point sailed through the uprights to give KMS a 14-7 lead.

Both defenses clamped down forcing many punts. KMS got the ball back and went into their two minute offense. They did a good job running off tackle and got down to the 10 yard line. However, they were out of timeouts and could not get the final play off and were stalled there going into halftime.

Late in the third quarter, the Patriots got pinned deep on an excellent punt by KMS. A penalty backed them up to the six yard line. The Patriots then used a huge passing play from Eric Freiler to Garrett Wolf to get them into KMS territory.

The passing and no huddle offense worked very well on the drive. The Patriots scored on a 17 yard pass from Freiler to Wolf to finish off a 94 yard drive. A missed extra point allowed KMS to maintain the lead 14-13.

A quick three and out forced KMS to punt on their next possession. The punt was very short, which gave USA the ball back at their own 49 yard line.

On the second play of the fourth quarter, Colton Kruzel had a nice run which brought USA down to the one yard line. Mitch Lange punched it in from one yard out. A pass from Freiler to Derek Pfeiffer was incomplete on the two point conversion but USA took the lead 19-14.

Despite dominating the line of scrimmage for most of the game, KMS was unable to put a drive together and score on USA in the fourth quarter. They had many chances but a few dropped interceptions and passes stalled drives and opened the door for USA.

Freiler had a nice 19 yard touchdown run with 1:14 left in the game to break open the game.

KMS was forced to throw the ball on their final drive, and Tren Dinius came up with an interception to end the game.

KMS tallied more yards than USA with 341 compared to 325. Johnson dominated on the ground, specifically in the first half, picking up most of his team's 288 rushing yards.

Mollner led the team in rushing with 93 yards on six carries. Freiler finished with 40 yards on five carries.

Freiler had a great game completing 10 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown.

Wolf was his main target, who pulled in six catches for 114 yards and a touchdown.

USA opens up section 6AA play with a home game against Holdingford on Tuesday.

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