The Minnetonka Skippers will face off against the Blaine Bengals at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Both are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Minnetonka is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Friday. They claimed a resounding 49-7 victory over Mayo. Given the Skippers' advantage in MaxPreps' Minnesota football rankings (they are ranked 15th, while the Spartans are ranked 113th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Blaine was fully in charge on Friday, breezing past Forest Lake 53-21. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Bengals.
It was another big night for Sam Shaughessy, who threw for 232 yards and five touchdowns on only 18 passes, and also rushed for 67 yards and a touchdown. Derek Schlomann was in the mix too, providing Blaine with two touchdowns.
Blaine didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. It was truly a group effort as Kvaughn Landers, Carter Mackey, and Nolan Novak picked up one apiece. Mackey has been hot for a while, having also posted five or more total tackles the last 16 times he's played.
Minnetonka's win bumped their record up to 8-2. As for Blaine, they have been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 7-3 record this season.
Minnetonka was able to grind out a solid victory over Blaine when the teams last played back in September of 2022, winning 21-14. Will Minnetonka repeat their success, or does Blaine have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
