PREP FOOTBALL: Hempeck lifts Mountain Lake over Nicollet 53-28

NICOLLET — Andrew Hempeck ran for 245 yards on 27 carries, including four touchdowns for the Mountain Lake Area Wolverines in the Section 2 9-man championship game against No. 1 seed Nicollet Friday.

MLA opened up the scoring on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Carter Kirk to Eric Wenner in the first quarter to give the Wolverines a 8-0 lead after the 2-point conversion.

Hempeck picked up his first touchdown of the game in the second quarter on a one-yard run (2-point conversion good) to put MLA up 16-0.

Nicollet got on the board with just over 8 minutes left in the first half on a 44-yard pass from Dalton Elliot to Kenny Fischer (2-point conversion good) to cut the Wolverines lead to eight.

MLA extended its lead back to 16 on a 24-yard TD run by Kirk (2-point conversion good) to make it 24-8 at half.

Nicollet came out of halftime and put together an 11 play, 66-yard drive which was capped off with a two-yard run by Elliot (2-point conversion good) to pull Nicollet within eight.

The Wolverines answered with a 56-yard TD run by Hempeck (2-point conversion good) to put MLA up 32-16 at the end of the third quarter.

An interception by MLA lineman Josh Grev set up the Wolverines first touchdown of the fourth quarter, a four-yard scamper by Hempeck. The score put MLA up by 24 with just over 11 minutes to play in the final quarter.

Nicollet was able to score again on a 49-yard pass from Elliot to Evan Guffey to pull within 18 points of the lead (2-point conversion failed).

The Wolverines put another six points on the board on a three-yard run by Kirk (2-point conversion failed) and then scored again just 3 minutes later on a eight-yard run by Hempeck (PAT good) to put MLA up 53-22.

Nicollet scored one more time on the Wolverines in the game, this time on a 10-yard pass from Eilliot to Travis Murphy (2-point conversion failed) to make it 53-28 with just 43 seconds left in the game.

Kirk was the Wolverines second leading rusher with 53 yards on 12 carries, while going 8 of 14 passing for 85 yards. Wenner caught three passes for 37 yards and Ryan Klassen came down with two catches for 38 yards.

MLA will face the Section 1 champion Grand Meadow in the first round of the state tournament Friday in Rochester.

Tags: mountain lake, sports, prep, football