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| Darren Beenken 16-22, 210 yards, TD; Athen Aston 34 carries 195 yards, 2 TD's (photos by Jim Lindquist) |
Much to the delight of likely the largest crowd ever to witness a Farmington home game, the Tigers remained unbeaten in 2012 with a nail-biting 27-23 homecoming victory over Chaska Friday night at Tiger Stadium.
The win upped coach Mark Froehling's team's season record to 5-0 and left it in a dead heat with Holy Angels atop the Missota Conference standings with a 4-0 mark.
"This was a great football game against a great football team," Froehling said. "They (Chaska) had a couple of really talented runners and they made some big plays on us.
"But our kids made the plays when they had to. Our goal-line defense has been great all year. I think we've had a goal-line stand like the one at the end in just about every game this year. That's what we teach...protect the end zone."
This game's red-zone stand came in the final minutes of regulation after Chaska marched from its own 15-yard line all the way to the Farmington 14-yard.
Facing a fourth-and-four from the 18 with 51 seconds left, the Tigers hurried Hawk quarterback Justin Arnold into a pass picked off by Alex Chadwick to send the raucous crowd into one last frenzied roar.
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| Alex Chadwick game-saving INT (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
After Chaska scored with ease on its first possession (60 yards on 4 plays), the Tigers oiled up their offensive machine to score 17 straight points.
The first came on a 26-yard field goal by Reid Taubenheim with five minutes to play in the first period.
The second, a five-play 60-yard drive set up by a Denver Robinson fumble recovery, came two minutes later when tailback Athen Ashton found the end zone on a 24-yard scamper.
Early in the second period, Ashton scored on a draw play from 17 yards out to make it 17-7.
Chaska countered with another long scoring drive but Robinson blocked the extra point to keep the Farmignton lead at four points with 7:48 left in the half.
Taubenheim booted another field goal, this one a 41-yarder, on the next Tiger possession to stretch the lead to 20-13 but two plays later Arnold rambled 74 yards to tie the count in what was rapidly becoming a horse race.
The Tigers had just 2:22 of clock remaining before the break but that was more than enough for senior quarterback Darren Beenken to do his thing. Beenken connected on all six of his passes for 75 yards on a lightning-quick, 85-yard drive that ended with a 25-yard toss to Mac Bassett with 18 seconds left.
The Tiger offensive unit finished the first 24 minutes with 346 yards of total offense. Ashton ran for 135 yards and Beenken was 13 of 16 passing for 176 yards.
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| Mac Bassett 5 catches for 59 yards (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
"We got a couple of breaks, but, no, we couldn't have played much better," he said. "We executed very well."
Defensive coordinator Glenn Mogensen who saw his team give up 206 yards in the opening half had a completely different story to tell.
"We were getting our butts kicked and the offense was carrying us," he said. "We told them it was time to step up and start making some plays."
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| Mason Auge 11 tackles (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
"We have to play assignment defense and we missed some assignments in the first half," Froehling said. "We got out of position and a good team like Chaska is going to take advantage of that."
Ashton and Beenken took advantage of some quality interior line play by Nate Retterath, Alex Witkowski, Josh Patterson, Ryan Gowen and Josh Boatwright amd tight ends CJ Wynings and Tanner Thode to put up some gaudy individual numbers.
Aston toted the ball 34 times for a season-high 195 yards and two touchdowns while Beenken finished 16 of 22 through the air for 210 yards and a score. Beenken also picked up 34 yards on 10 carries.
Bassett had five catches for 59 yards and a touchdown to lead the receiving corps. Jordan DeCroock grabbed three for 65 yards and Ashton, Wynnings, Johnny Dittman and Tyler VanWinkle each had a pair of receptions.
And then there was Taubenheim who had a foot in all five of the Farmington scores--two field goals and three extra points.
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| Reid Taubenheim 2FG, 3XP's (photo by Jim Lindquist) |
Defensively, linebacker Mason Auge had another busy night, finishing with 11 tackles, two for loss and a quarterback sack. John LeBlond totaled 7-5 tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss. Taubenheim and Jack Erickson each had five stops and Chadwick 4.5 to go with his game-saving interception.
Things don't get any easier next week for the No. 6-rated Tigers when they travel to Chanhassen to take on the Storm. Chanhassen (3-2) downed Chaska 18-7 earlier in the season.
"They have some speed and they try to spread you out," Froehling said. "We'll have to be ready to play."
