text: Gabriel Wolff (3) got around Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted defender Lance Luchsinger (18) on his way to a 64-yard touchdown in the second quarter of Jackson County Central's 27-0 victory. Photo by Mark Hvidsten, SportsEngine
  Playoff football in Minnesota is not for the faint of heart. While recent weekends have seen sunny days and temperatures nearing the 70s, Thursday night is what you’d expect out of a state tournament game in November, with winds blowing near 20 miles per hour.
  Jackson County Central was built for this kind of football, as it came away with a 27-0 victory over Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted in the Class 2A quarterfinals. Head coach Tom Schuller noted the effect the cold can have on a team’s game.
  “It gets to be such a different game plan this time of year,” Schuller said. “You can’t throw the ball and you see the spread teams get into a little bit of trouble.”
  Photo Gallery: Jackson County Central vs. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted
  The Lakers (9-3) are far from a spread team, as they attempted six passes in the game, with a majority of those coming after they were down three touchdowns. The Huskies (12-0) proved to be the stronger team on the ground, as they outran the Lakers 282-132 in total rushing yards.
  A bulk of those yards — 182 to be exact — came from Gabriel Wolff. The senior back said he and his teammates embrace this kind of weather and tough running style.
  “This is where the mental game comes in strong, and that’s where we thrive,” Wolff said. “Not only is it a physical game, but we try to beat teams down mentally.”
  The weather may have helped the Huskies on Thursday, but they won’t be upset to be in a weather-controlled environment next week.
  “You can’t complain when you’re at [U.S.] Bank [Stadium],” Wolff said.
  On the other side of the ball, Schuller said his team’s main focus defensively was slowing down Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted’s Collin Boese. The Huskies pulled out all of the stops this week in practice to try to make that happen. Though Boese ran the ball 19 times, the Huskies held him to 56 yards.
  “(Boese) is one of the fastest kids we’ve faced this year so we knew we had a challenge to keep him contained and for the most part we did,” Schuller said. “We had one of our fast coaches suit up this week and I asked him if he’s as fast as (Boese) and he said, ‘Not anymore.’ It was a good simulation for when we came out here.”
  The running game is the biggest strength for Jackson County Central, but both Schuller and Wolff insist the offense isn’t one-dimensional.
  “We throw the ball just fine when we want to,” Schuller said. “Today we didn’t really want to under these conditions.”
  Wolff agreed, noting his team is strong both in the air and on the ground. Since the ground game seemed to be working, Wolff said, they kept with it.
  As for the Lakers, their season ends in the state quarterfinals a year after going 0-9. First-year head coach Adam Birkholz said his players made it easy for him to turn things around.
  “The guys came in, played extremely hard,” Birkholz said. “They’re super coachable. We couldn’t ask for a better group of guys.”
  A group of Jackson County Central defenders including Logan Butzon (11) wrapped up Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted running back Collin Boese (32) after a short gain in the second half. Photo by Mark Hvidsten, SportsEngine
  First report
  Jackson County Central is on its way to U.S. Bank Stadium after defeating Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 27-0 in the Class 2A quarterfinals on Thursday in St. Anthony.
  The opening drive for the Huskies took up a majority of the first quarter as they ran the ball at will, mainly featuring Gabriel Wolff out of the backfield. The senior racked up 46 yards on the first drive and capped it off with a five-yard touchdown run to start the second quarter.
  Their second scoring drive took far less time, as Wolff took an outside handoff, broke multiple tackles, then sped away from the secondary for a 64-yard touchdown. Wolff finished with a game-high 182 rushing yards.
  The Huskies had a chance to take full control of the game right before the half, but Cam Jones recovered a fumble for the Lakers to keep it a 14-point game.
  The Lakers (9-3) slowed down Wolff early in the second half, forcing a three-and-out on the opening drive of the half. Their ensuing drive ate up a lot of clock and eventually ended with an interception by Caleb Vancura on a fake punt attempt in Jackson County Central territory.
  Vancura made another big catch later in the next drive, as he hauled in a 21-yard touchdown pass from Roman Voss on the freshman’s second pass of the game.
  Noah Thompson scored on the ground in the final minute to put an exclamation point on a dominant victory for the Huskies (12-0).
  Jackson County Central quarterback Roman Voss (2) tried to elude Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted defender Bruce Burau (14) as he ran for a first down in the second quarter. Photo by Mark Hvidsten, SportsEngine
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