Pefection: Winhawks advance with another dominating performance at Paul Giel

Pefection: Winhawks advance with another dominating performance at Paul Giel
Winhawk FB

The Winona High football team celebrates after beating Faribault 62-0 on Saturday.

What the Winona Senior High School football team lacks in drama it makes up for with dominance. 

The Winhawks put an exclamation point on another perfect record at Paul Giel Field with a 62-0 victory over Faribault in a MSHSL Section 1AAAA semifinal on Saturday night. The last time Winona lost a home game was Oct. 9, 2015 — when the current crop of seniors was in eighth grade. 

In those 21 home games, Winona has outscored its opponents by an average of 38-13. Only one game was decided by single figures — a 14-7 win over New Prague in 2016 — and only five times did a team score more than 14 points. 

The Winhawks (9-0) will face one of those teams in the section final at 7 p.m. Friday at Rochester Mayo High School. Kasson-Mantorville (6-3), which beat Byron 28-8 in the other section semifinal, gave Winona a scare earlier this season before the Winhawks got a turnover in the fourth quarter to survive with a 34-24 victory on homecoming Sept. 20. 

The Winhawks have won the last three section championships and beat Kasson-Mantorville in the title game in 2016 and 2017.

The winner advances to the state quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8 in Hastings, Minn. 

The Winhawks took control of the section semifinal game early. A long kick return by Austin Mlynczak set up Winona inside Kasson-Mantorville territory, and two plays later Trevor Pomeroy scored the first of his three rushing touchdowns for a 7-0 lead less than 30 seconds into the game. Faribualt fumbled on its ensuing possession, and Pomeroy scored on a 5-yard TD run for a 14-0 lead less than 3 minutes into the game.

Faribualt (2-8) didn’t run a play on Winona’s side of the field until late in the fourth quarter, but the Winona backups held firm and kept the Falcons out of the end zone. 

Jackson Nibbelink finished 10 of 14 for 152 yards and three touchdowns — one each to Dayne Gamoke, Trenton Langowski and Sean Mohan. Backup Jacob Heftman also completed both passes he attempted for 68 yards. 

Pomeroy finished with 80 yards on 11 carries, while Colton Beier added 53 on eight carries. Dominic Davis, Peyton Hoff and Ricardo Castanon all scored rushing TDs.