1 week Ago By Andrew Haugland
MOORHEAD — The Moorhead Spuds will head into section tournament the team to beat. The Spuds defeated the Sauk Rapids-Rice Storm 49-14 in the final regular season matchup on Wednesday night at Jim Gotta Stadium. Moorhead moved to 8-0 overall and is the top-ranked team in Section 8-5A, with section playoff games set to begin Tuesday, Oct.
22. Moorhead’s 21-player senior class was honored before the start of the game. Senior linebacker Jonah Horan said it’s remarkable to see the growth since playing freshman football.
“Our freshman football team won one game the whole year,” Horan said. “We came back with this big senior group to be 8-0. It’s awesome.
” Horan had one of the longest touchdowns of the night. He scored a 72-yard fumble recovery touchdown with one second remaining in the first quarter to give the Spuds a 21-0 lead. The Storm coughed up the ball after a bad snap forced SSR quarterback Alex Zimmer to try to corral the loose ball.
“I saw the ball fall on the ground,” Horan said. “(Jack Olstad) hit (Zimmer) really good. I picked it up, made one guy miss and it was off from there.
” Defensively, the Spuds held the Storm to just two touchdowns. Defensive back and wide receiver Owen Thielges intercepted a pass in the third quarter. Spuds head coach Kevin Feeney said having all 11 guys swarming the football has been a key trait to the Moorhead defense all season.
“When you get a lot of hats to the ball, footballs come out,” Feeney said. The Spuds grabbed the lead early and ran with it. Receiver David Mack caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jett Feeney with 7 minutes, 25 seconds to play in the first quarter.
Moorhead made it 14-0 after Reign Battle hauled in a 14-yard scoring pass with 3:27 left in the first quarter. Mack found the end zone again with 8:40 to play in the first half. Jett Feeney connected with Battle on a 74-yard scoring pass with 5:12 left in the second quarter.
It was Jett Feeney’s fourth TD pass of the game. The Storm broke up the shut out when quarterback Samuel Kulus rumbled 1-yard into the end zone. Lulus later found receiver Hudson Omoke for a 46-yard reception.
SSR recovered a fumble and run out the clock. Moorhead led 35-7 at halftime. After the Thielges' interception, Spuds running back Taye Reich capped off a 13-play drive with a 9-yard rushing touchdown with 8:17 to play in the third quarter.
Mack caught his third touchdown pass of the night with 7:40 left in the game. Silus snuck into the end zone for the second time with 1:41 left in the fourth quarter. Moorhead ran out the clock and celebrated the end of the regular season.
“We really stressed that we needed a fast start,” Kevin Feeney said. “Anytime you can get a team on the ropes right away is a big boost for our team.” The Spuds will take the No.
1 seed heading into the Section 8-5A tournament with an opponent yet to be determined. Moorhead will play on Saturday, Oct. 26, at Jim Gotta Stadium against the winner of a first round game between the No.
4 seed and No. 5 seed. “We had a big win,” Horan said.
“Let’s keep it rolling.”.
