Orono defeats Kasson-Mantorville for Class 4A football title

The Minnesota Star Tribune

November 22, 2025 at 6:13 PM

Orono’s football season started anew on a rainy October morning, running sprints on the turf at 6 a.m.

Coming off a loss to Delano, the Spartans’ third defeat in the first seven weeks of the season, head coach Joe McPherson told his crew, “We have one season left, and that’s playoffs.”

“It was actually a fun practice,” McPherson said. “Most high school kids will show up, MEA break, 6 a.m., and complain about it. … This is a special group. They showed up, they reset.”

On Friday, they won a state championship, defeating Kasson-Mantorville 21-14 in the Class 4A Prep Bowl.

That loss to Delano didn’t hurt so much after all.

“I kind of think it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us,” Orono senior defensive end Simon Vinton said.

The Prep Bowl title is the program’s first after Orono (10-3) made the trip to the state tournament for the fourth time in five seasons, coming in unranked in the class polls before the tournament and knocking off undefeated Marshall in the semifinals.

Similar to Orono’s season, Kasson-Mantorville’s Class 4A Prep Bowl started anew at halftime, when the KoMets trailed 21-0.

The Spartans came out running the ball more than the KoMets expected, led by 87 yards from sophomore Hudson Hirt. In total, the Spartans outgained the KoMets 191 yards to 31 in the first half. Orono senior quarterback Griffin Mauer found the end zone twice rushing, and senior Dane Kanwischer scored once.

Kanwischer’s 16 tackles were a team high for an Orono defense that, early on, shut down the KoMets (11-2), who were also looking for a first state title after a runner-up finish in 2021.

“When you got guys that are playing both ways, it’s tough to make all-out adjustments,” Kasson-Mantorville coach Joel Swanson said. “You try to get to half so that you can do those things, and our guys responded.”

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Looking to go wider and off tackle more, the KoMets were suddenly able to move the chains, putting up 215 second-half yards to the Spartans’ 40. Junior running back Parker Richards, who finished with a game-high 104 yards on the ground, rushed for a 1-yard score after senior quarterback Grady Babcock connected with St. Thomas commit Jeremiah Peterson-Gordon for a 37-yard touchdown pass.

Defensively, McPherson said, Kasson-Mantorville “started recognizing where we were trying to get to. They were overloading on one side, and then when we tried to come back the other way, that’s when they would bring on that back side.”

An interception by KoMets senior linebacker Kaylub White with three minutes to play set up his team at midfield with a shot at tying or taking the lead.

But after a tackle from sophomore linebacker Grant Eslinger brought up fourth-and-2 on the Orono 18, a pass floated to the doorstep of the end zone by Babcock fell incomplete, dropping between two lunging Kasson-Mantorville receivers crowded by a quartet of Orono defenders.

“I had to boot out, and I saw I could have gotten to the sticks, but I saw we had two receivers, and both guys wanted to make a play,” Babcock said. “It’s nobody’s fault. We just ended up with two guys in the same spot, and they both wanted to make a play and come through for our team.”

Said Orono senior receiver and linebacker Adrian Licursi, who made 13 tackles and led the team with 37 receiving yards: “All season, the message has been ‘One more play.’ The next play is the most important play, so really down the stretch when it became tough … it was always ‘One more play.’ ”