Often when a team ends a losing streak, it happens because it comes up against an opponent that's also suffering through its season. But that wasn't the case Friday night when Watertown-Mayer, winless since the opening game of 2017, got on the bus to go to Glencoe-Silver Lake.
Watertown-Mayer ends three-year football losing streak in convincing way
Not only did the team break the streak, it happened against an opponent that had a winning record this season and beaten the Royals soundly over the last two seasons.
November 3, 2020 at 3:52PM
Glencoe-Silver Lake entered the game with a 2-1 record and had beaten Watertown-Mayer three times over the last two seasons by a combined score of 140-14. Watertown-Mayer's 29-game losing streak included only one game in which it lost by less than double-digits.
On paper, well, you know ...
Writing for the Herald-Journal, a newspaper and web site that covers communities in Wright County, sports reporter Kip Kovar quoted Watertown-Mayer's coach, Andrew Phillips, saying: "I told them when we got off the bus that I wasn't real confident. They didn't have a lot of fire. But they stepped up to the plate and rose to the challenge."
Final score: Watertown-Mayer 29, Glencoe-Silver Lake 10.
There was an interception return for the first touchdown, a long scoring pass for the second score and a 75-yard run after Glencoe-Silver Lake pulled within 14-10 in the third quarter.
The final touchdown came after Phillips decided to throw on a third-and-long situation, a completion that set up his team's final touchdown.
One of the sweet things about this sort of streak busting is the emotion that comes with it. In this case, it was Wyatt McCabe, who scored on the 75-yard touchdown run. He told Kovar: "Honestly, I've never been so excited in my life. This was a huge win for us leading into the last few games of the year. I really can't explain how excited I am."
You can watch the full replay on YouTube. The thing that's striking about the game's final seconds is that Watertown-Mayer, for all of its losing, acted like a team that wasn't at all surprised by winning. That speaks well of their chances in the final two games of the season, including this Saturday against Dassel-Cokato.
You can rewind the full video for more scoring highlights. But what you'll see here is a play that Watertown-Mayer hadn't run in years.
Victory formation.
Six players plus head coach Garrett Raboin and assistant coach Ben Gordon are from Minnesota. The tournament’s games will be televised starting Monday.
