ALEXANDRIA — Hanson’s defense stuffed Mount Vernon running back Robbie Kazi on fourth-and-2 with a little over two minutes remaining in the game to preserve an 8-6 victory Friday night in Alexandria.

Driving deep into Beaver territory, a wall of blockers tried to clear some room for Kazi, but a barrage of Beaver defenders powered through the line and denied the Mustangs of the game-winning drive.

The drive started after Mount Vernon’s defense forced Hanson to turn the ball over on downs on the Mustangs’ 32-yard line. Two plays later, Mount Vernon quarterback Brian Kluth connected with tight end Jon Nebelsick for a 41-yard pass down the middle of the field, giving the Mustangs the ball on Hanson’s 22-yard line.

Kazi ran the ball the next two plays for no gain, and Kluth picked up seven yards on a keeper on 3rd-and-9.

Mount Vernon head coach Ryan Kristensen then called a timeout and discussed what would be his offense’s final play of the game.

“I talked to my guys and they said I want to do this and this and this,” Kristensen said. “I trusted my guys, so I ran it … It was a play that my guys thought that they could get, but they overpursued and they didn’t get it.”

The loss is Mount Vernon’s second consecutive this season and it moves the team’s record to 5-2 on the season 11 days before the start of playoffs. The Mustangs lost to Gregory 16-12 last week.

Hanson, however, ended its regular season with the win. The Beavers were also edged last week, 34-28 in double overtime to Howard, and ended their regular season 5-3.

“After coming off a game like that, where we had it, it’s nice to keep improving and getting better,” Hanson coach Jim Haskamp said.

Both of the touchdowns in the game came on 1-yard runs from each of the team’s leading running backs.

Hanson scored on its second drive after Beavers’ quarterback Andrew Gross fired a 33-yard pass to Austin Letcher, who eventually powered the ball in on third-and-goal from the 1. Letcher — who ran in the 2-point conversion after his touchdown — finished the game with 12 carries for 107 yards.

Mount Vernon’s score came with 2:37 left in the first half. Kazi had three straight runs for a total of 19 yards to set up back-to-back passes from Kluth.

Kluth threw a 10-yard pass to Kyle Weiss on second-and-7 for a first down, and then he hit Zach London for another first down to set up first-and-goal from the 6.

Kazi — who finished with 102 yards on 19 carries — bulldozed his way in on third down. Kluth attempted a pass on the 2-point conversion, but it was intercepted by Beaver linebacker Pierce Smith.

The game most definitely wasn’t about the two team’s offenses. Both of the defenses shined.

“I knew this was going to be a dogfight from the get-go,” Kristensen said. “Our defense stepped up when they needed to and they played their hearts out. We just didn’t put points on the board.”

Mount Vernon was forced to go three-and-out on its first two possessions and had to punt on its first four drives.

But after giving up the score to Letcher, the Mustangs’ defense tightened up and made Hanson punt four times and turn the ball over on downs twice.

The Mustangs’ best chance to take the lead quite possibly came on their second drive after the half.

On fourth-and-9, Weiss’ number was called on an end around and scored from 10 yards out, but the touchdown was nullified due to a holding penalty.

“They ran it nicely out of that spread, and they did some things that we weren’t quite used to,” Haskamp said. “But overall our kids made some good adjustments and played great defense. Defense won this ballgame. We didn’t move the ball well, but we were fortunate to score early.”

Smith had a game-high 12 tackles and the key interception to lead the Beavers. Trevor Doyle had eight tackles and Alex Kayser had six tackles and a fumble recovery.

Jarod Deinert led the Mustangs with 11 tackles, while Derek Grace and Weiss each had nine.

Thursday, Mount Vernon will try and bounce back before the start of the 9A playoffs with Kimball in the regular season finale. Hanson is off until the playoffs.