BLAINE, Minn. — The Jett Feeney-to-David Mack connection clicked again Friday night for the Moorhead Spuds.
A junior receiver, Mack caught three touchdown passes to help lead the Spuds to a 38-21 victory against No. 3 seed Blaine in the opening round of the Minnesota Class 6A football playoffs.
Feeney, a junior quarterback, finished with four TD passes for the No. 6-seeded Spuds. Moorhead (5-4) scored the final 10 points of the first half and the first seven points after halftime to create a 17-point cushion.
Spuds junior Taye Reich later added a 2-yard touchdown run for a 38-21 lead with 1 minute, 57 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Reich rushed for 153 yards on 25 attempts.
Moorhead next plays at No. 2 seed Woodbury (7-2) next weekend in the second round of the playoffs with details yet to be announced. The Royals stopped a 2-point try in the closing seconds to hold on for a 21-20 home victory Friday against No. 7 seed Eagan.
The Spuds earned a 34-27 road victory against Woodbury on Sept. 5. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound Feeney injured his shoulder during that game and then missed the next five games.
“We played them in Week 2 and it seems like it was a season ago already,” said Spuds head coach Kevin Feeney. “Any time you go on the road, it’s a big challenge.”
Friday against Blaine was Feeney’s second game back after
returning for the final game of the regular season
at Edina.
Mack caught two TD passes in the first quarter. His second was a 5-yard touchdown catch from Feeney for a 14-7 lead with 3:48 remaining in the opening quarter.
Blaine QB Jameson Niska scored on a 9-yard TD run that tied the scored at 14-14 with 28 seconds to play in the first quarter.
The Spuds took a 21-14 lead after Jaimeson Dunlap caught a 3-yard pass from Feeney on fourth-and-goal with 5:18 remaining in the second quarter. Dunlap, a Minnesota State Moorhead commit, finished with five catches for 34 yards.
Junior kicker Ibrahim Abdi drilled a 27-yard field goal for a 24-14 lead on the final play of the first half.
Mack added a 3-yard touchdown catch for a 31-14 lead with a minute remaining in the third quarter. The Spuds held Blaine scoreless over the middle two quarters. Mack finished with 11 catches for 160 yards.
Feeney completed 20 of 28 passes for 237 yards.
Blaine’s Noah Tieden caught a 10-yard TD pass from Niska that trimmed the Spuds lead to 31-21 with 9:10 to play in the fourth quarter. The Spuds countered with Reich’s game-sealing TD run that capped a run-heavy drive.
“Everybody thinks that we’re just a passing football team,” Kevin Feeney said. “We can play smashmouth football when we need to. That’s a huge credit to our offensive line.”
The 6-foot-1, 175-pound Mack has 29 catches for 362 yards and seven TDs over his past two games, including a
school record 18 receptions against Edina
to close out the regular season.
“We’re trying to move him around to try to find different ways to get him the ball,” Kevin Feeney said. “We have really, really intelligent football players that we can put into five (different) spots. As good as he’s been playing lately, our other wide receivers have been phenomenal.”
MHS 14 10 7 7—38
BHS 14 0 0 7—21
M—Mack 58 pass from Feeney (Abdi kick)
B—Obwaya 12 run (Secic kick)
M—Mack 5 pass from Feeney (Abdi kick)
B—Niska 9 run (Secic kick)
M—Dunlap 3 pass from Feeney (Abdi kick)
M—Abdi 28 FG
M—Mack 3 pass from Feeney (Abdi kick)
B—Tieden 10 pass from Niska (Secic kick)
M—Reich 2 run (Abdi kick)
Peterson covers college athletics for The Forum, including Concordia College and Minnesota State Moorhead. He also covers the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks independent baseball team and helps out with North Dakota State football coverage. Peterson has been working at the newspaper since 1996.