Peterson did hit the jackpot, however, as his seven touchdown passes helped the Chargers roll to a 54-16 win over Le Sueur-Henderson and move to 3-0 on the season.

Peterson’s seven TD passes broke the previous single-game school record of four, held by John Enter, A.J. Buboltz and Matt Munsen.

“Honestly, I was pretty excited about it, but most of all, I was just excited to share that with the team,” Peterson said. “Felt like everybody got the ball, putting it out there, everybody was getting involved. So that was pretty good and it was just a good time for the team and the boys.”

Peterson wasn’t just finding his receivers on screens or flat routes either. He took his share of shots down the field.

Photo courtesy of Dave Bendix From left to right, Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Ben Pearson, Kyler Flunker, Kaden Peterson, Brennan Bendix and Bradyn Kube pose for a photo at Johnson Field in New Ulm after Peterson set the MVL single-game school record for touchdown passes with seven. Pearson caught two TD passes, while Flunker caught two, Kube caught two and Bendix caught one.

His first TD pass against LSH — and his second pass of the day — saw him roll out of the pocket to his left and toss a 38-yard dart to Brennan Bendix in the end zone to put the Chargers up 6-0.

“I definitely thought [about] coming out of the gate strong and throwing it down there,” Peterson said of his first TD pass. “I saw him open, I saw him down the field, and I thought we had a pretty good shot there, and I just put it up there for him.”

After Bendix’s big catch in the end zone, Peterson ended up connecting with three other receivers for touchdowns on the night. Peterson completed four passes to Kyler Flunker for 84 yards and two touchdowns, four passes to Bradyn Kube for 79 yards and two touchdowns and three passes to Ben Pearson for 81 yards and two touchdowns.

Peterson finished the game with 13 completions for 278 yards.

“I just kept going through, making my reads, looking short to long, and when I got the looks I liked, I tried to hit those,” Peterson said. “And everything just kind of worked out really well, I thought.”

Peterson may not be the biggest quarterback in the area at 5-foot-10 and 155 pounds, but his play and leadership so far this season has been huge for MVL.

He’s also happy to have the talent around him to work with.

“I think most of it is, we’ve got some pretty awesome guys out at their specialty position,” Peterson said. “Some top receivers out at the wide receiver spot, good running back, line that’s doing pretty well right now, lot of good guys around me, helps a lot.”

Peterson and the Chargers are currently prepping for a Homecoming showdown with the Class AAA Luverne Cardinals on Friday night.

Luverne is fresh off a 35-0 shutout over Sibley East last Friday night and is 2-1 on the year.

“I’m expecting it to be a little harder game than the ones we’ve played, but same game plan,” Peterson said. “Go in there, get out early, catch a lead early and just roll with it the whole game. I feel like that’s what’s been working really well is putting the foot on the gas right away and get rolling.”

Peterson has 10 touchdown passes on the year, and if his season continues the way it’s been so far, Lee Brandel’s single-season MVL school record of 19 TD passes, set in 1997, could be another record Peterson takes.

But the only record in Peterson’s mind going forward is his team’s record and making a run at the state tournament.

“State, in my mind,” Peterson said. “We keep rolling as a team right now, I feel like a lot of teams are teams, and I feel like right now our team is a family. And I think that’s what makes our team different from a lot of other teams is we’re close together, a good brotherhood together … and we may not look like the biggest team out there, but we’ve got more heart than anybody I know.”