In the first three games of the season, the Mankato West football team hadn’t faced many challenges, never trailing in three victories.

But it was early in the third quarter Saturday, and Rochester Mayo was within four points and had the ball, taking over the momentum.

“I really like to have a little bit of adversity,” West coach J.J. Helget said. “They had all the momentum (early in the third quarter), but we stopped them. Good teams are going to throw punches at you, and you have to absorb them and respond.”

Leading by just four points after the first drive of the second half, the Scarlets reeled off 20 consecutive points, taking advantage of a couple of mistakes to defeat Rochester Mayo 41-17 in a Big Southeast District football game Saturday afternoon at Todnem Field.

“It’s good to have challenges,” West junior linebacker Ryan Haley said. “We know we can be one of the best teams in the state, which I don’t think people thought we would be. We want other teams to know that we’re not going to be easy competition.”

The Scarlets opened the game with four straight runs by Wyatt Block, which included a 49-yarder. His 1-yard run scored the touchdown, and Drew Smook’s PAT made it 7-0 after two minutes.

A long pass play led to Mayo getting a first-and-goal at the West 1, but two runs were stuffed in the backfield and a pass fell incomplete as Mayo settled for the 22-yard field goal.

West responded with another long drive, with seven of the 10 plays coming on rushes. This time, Owen Johnson scored the touchdown on an 8-yard run for a 14-3 lead.

The advantage grew to 21-3 midway through the second quarter on a 2-yard run by Block and Smook’s PAT.

Mayo, which had 145 yards passing in the first half, scored with 1:26 to go before halftime, pulling within 21-10 at the break.

The Scarlets had 180 yards on 21 carries in the first half, led by Block, who rushed for 143 yards on 13 attempts.

“We came into the game with a full 50-50 game plan,” Helget said. “There were some things in the pass game that we didn’t even try because the (offensive line) was dominating and the running backs were running hard. If something’s going good, you keep doing it. One of the things as a play-caller is not to over-think things and go with the easy decision, which was to run the ball.”

Mayo converted its first drive of the third quarter, then stopped West on fourth down at the Mayo 28. The Spartans, with a chance to be the first opponent to lead West, advanced the ball to near midfield, but on fourth down, the punter kneeled to scoop a low snap and was down at the Mayo 32.

Four plays later, quarterback Zander Dittbenner scored on a 1-yard run for a 28-17 lead.

Mekhi Collins made an interception at the Mayo 24 on the next possession, and this time it took five plays, with Dittbenner passing to Collins from 4 yards to push the lead to 35-17 early in the final quarter.

“The whole week, we prepared for the pass; we knew they were going to throw the ball around,” Haley said. “But our defensive started to get the pass rush going, and the secondary did a good job to stop them.”

The final touchdown came on a fake punt as Johnson scored on a 50-yard run.

West finished with 395 yards of offense, with 281 yards rushing. Block had 21 carries for 165 yards, and Johnson had nine carries for 76 yards. Dittbenner completed 10 of 15 passes for 114 yards.

Mayo had 268 yards, passing for 224 yards on 18 completions in 30 attempts.

The Scarlets (4-0) play at Owatonna (3-1) on Friday.

“Owatonna always has a good team, well-coached,” Helget said. “Last year, we had a 10-point lead with 10 minutes to go (at Owatonna) and we lost. We’ll have the guys ready and play a good game.”

Follow Chad Courrier on Twitter@ChadCourrier.

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