Turnovers continued to haunt Albert Lea Friday against Rochester Century at Hammer Field in a 28-7 loss in the Tigers last home game of the season.

Albert Lea (1-6, 0-6) had six turnovers in the game and the Panthers (2-5, 2-4) scored 21 points off those turnovers. The Tigers committed six turnovers against Faribault last week and four against Winona two weeks ago.

“For me the big story is that we played so flat,” Albert Lea head coach Clay Anderson said. “We’re only down 7-0 and then we just give them 14 points at the end. We’ve just never had the intensity that we had back against Mankato East. We just can’t seem to get that back.”

The Tigers had an opportunity to score the first points of the game when a poor Century punt gave them the ball at the Panthers 27-yard line. Albert Lea failed to move the ball and got backed into a third and long situation. On third-and-13 Century intercepted a pass over the middle.

The Panthers took over at their own 13-yard line. Century went up 7-0 in the first quarter after Joey DeGoey caught a 5-yard pass from Kyle Menkosky with 4:16 left in the quarter. The touchdown capped a 77-yard drive.

The Panthers took advantage of an Albert Lea fumble in the second quarter and drove 57 yards to take a 14-0 lead after a Chad Zastrow run from 17 yards out.

The Rochester Century offensive line opened up big holes for Zastrow throughout the game and the Tiger defense failed to tackle at times.

“It’s a momentum killer when you go out and get pummeled on defense for a couple of series,” Albert Lea linebacker Jordan Holland said. “You come back out there and you don’t have as much fire and as much drive. It’s tough to get back up.”

Zastrow finished the game with 203 yards rushing against Albert Lea and had two touchdowns.

The Tigers offense struggled to get on track and move the ball like it had in previous games. Albert Lea amassed 250 yards of total offense and 97 of those yards came on a touchdown pass from Cody Hansen to Matt Tiegs in the fourth quarter that made the game 28-7.

“We’ve struggled to move the ball ever since Mankato East,” Anderson said. “This was probably as good as we rushed it in the last two weeks.”

Hector Rivera led the team with 57 yards rushing as the defensive line created fits for the Tigers offensive line.

“We couldn’t do anything different,” offensive lineman Ethan Reed said. “We were trying but we couldn’t make holes, we couldn’t get everybody to give Cody time to throw the ball.”

Hansen finished the night 5-for-16 passing and was rushed to make decisions with the ball on a number of plays in the game.

This was a game many thought the Tigers could win, but it appeared the team hasn’t played like it had in the early part of the season.

“We knew we could go out and compete with them,” Holland said. “We compared them a lot to Mankato East and we played a hell of a game that game. Ever since that game we’ve had a letdown. You have to pick yourself up and you either do that or you keep falling.”

Albert Lea has a short week and prepares to face Austin in Austin Wednesday. The Packers are 2-5 on the season and are coming off a 38-14 loss to John Marshall.

Century 28, Albert Lea 7

Century – 7 14 7 0 – 28

AL – 0 0 0 7 – 7

First Quarter

Century – Joey DeGoey 5 pass from Kyle Menkosky (Tate Dison kick)

Second Quarter

Century – Chad Zastrow 17 run (Dison kick)

Century – Michael Hanson 56 pass from Menkosky

Third Quarter

Century – Zastrow 10 run (Dison kick)

Fourth Quarter

Albert Lea – Matt Tiegs 97 pass from Cody Hansen (Tiegs kick)

Total offense

Century – 306

AL – 250

Total rushing

Century – 184

AL – 50

Total passing

Century – 117

AL – 200