KIMBALL - A central Minnesota football team got a big monkey off their backs on Friday night. The Kimball Cubs snapped the nation's second-longest losing streak at 42 games.

Kimball beat Upsala/Swanville 31-16.

First-year head coach Johnny Benson says he's happy for the kids, especially the seniors.

What a testament to the group of seniors especially.  You talk about a time where it would be easy for a group of kids just to throw their hands up and say I quit.  What a testament to their character to stick with it.

The Cubs record is now 1-5 this year.

Benson says he never mentioned the losing streak to his team, and he was confident that they'd get at least one win this year.

It's more of a community thing to get that monkey off our backs, rather than something I'm thinking about.  I had a five-game losing streak, theirs was 42. It was a great win for the community.

Before Friday night, the last time Kimball won a football game was in October of 2012.

As for coach Benson, he's associated with a lot of winners, he played his high school football at Becker, and his college football at St. John's University. He's also the grandson of legendary coach John Gagliardi.

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