The Shakopee Sabers will head out on the road to square off against the Blaine Bengals at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Last Friday, Shakopee made easy work of Rosemount and carried off a 30-9 victory. Given the Sabers' advantage in MaxPreps' Minnesota football rankings (they are ranked 11th, while the Irish are ranked 123rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Blaine). They blew past Coon Rapids, posting a 55-9 win at home. The score at the end of the third wound up being the final score as the Bengals just coasted through the last quarter.
It was another big night for Sam Shaughessy, who rushed for 212 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 11.8 yards per carry, and also threw for 125 yards and two touchdowns while completing 72.7% of his passes. Noah Tieden was in the mix too, providing Blaine with two touchdowns.
Blaine didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off two passes before the game was over. The picks came courtesy of Alexander Leis and Brian Sowada.
Shakopee's victory was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 6-1. As for Blaine, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matches, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season.
Shakopee didn't have too much breathing room in their contest against Blaine when the teams last played back in October of 2023, but they still walked away with a 56-52 win. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Blaine's Michael Douglas, who rushed for 103 yards and three touchdowns, and also picked up 55 receiving yards and a touchdown. Now that he won't be playing on Thursday, will it be easier for Shakopee to walk away with another win? There's only one way to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
