MINNEAPOLIS — The Byron Bears earned a workmanlike victory in their season opener on an emotional night against Academy of Holy Angels on Friday.
The Bears scored three first-quarter touchdowns, recorded three interceptions and ran to a 42-12 victory against the Stars.
But, as Byron head coach Ben Halder said, “it was good to win, but the night was about more than a football game.”
Annunciation Catholic School, the site of a deadly shooting this week, is one of the schools whose students move on to Holy Angels.
Fans of both teams wore green and Halder said the Bears and the Stars wore special stickers on their helmets, as a small show of support for the community. And Halder said he hopes playing the game was healing, in some way, for the Catholic school community in Minneapolis.
On the field, the Bears held the Stars to 232 yards of total offense. Byron’s defense returned its three interceptions deep into Stars’ territory and converted them all into touchdowns. Joe Von Arx and Boden Cutsforth returned their picks for TDs, then Carson Heimer returned one to the Stars’ 2-yard line, and Byron scored from their.
Byron led 21-0 after one quarter and 42-0 after three.
Carson Heimer had 16 carries for 75 yards and a touchdown, while Jordan Heimer ran five times for 23 yards and a TD. Quarterback Eli Rodemeyer completed 8 of 12 passes for 116 yards and two touchdown passes. Both of those went to Gabe Coshenet, who caught four balls for 69 yards and the two scores.
Byron (1-0) hosts Orono at 7 p.m. next Friday.
Byron 42, Holy Angels 12
Byron 21-7-14-0 — 42
Holy Angels 0-0-0-12 — 12
Academy of Holy Angels FB game. Byron pride wearing green for a cause. Unbelievable community that we have. Proud to be a part of it!!👏 pic.twitter.com/SJq9jUKmaB
— Byron Activities (@ByronActivities) August 30, 2025
Kasson-Mantorville 37, St. Paul Central 0
ST. PAUL — Kasson-Mantorville started fast and didn’t let up en route to a dominating road victory in St. Paul.
Parker Richards opened the scoring with a rushing TD on K-M’s opening drive before finishing with 86 yards on just six carries. Quarterback Grady Babcock was also efficient with his legs, scoring a pair of touchdowns and rushing for 53 yards on five carries.
Standout Jeremiah Peterson-Gordon had a touchdown, recording 46 yards on three carries. He also had a pair of receptions for 15 yards.
The K-M rushing attack tallied 247 yards on 23 carries.
SOUTHEAST CENTRAL DISTRICT
Dover-Eyota 35, St. Charles 8
ST. CHARLES — Led by a potent rushing attack and a stout defense, Dover-Eyota started its campaign with a thorough 35-8 victory.
Caden Haag rushed for 161 yards on 18 carries as part of a rushing attack that gashed the Saints for 259 yards on 41 attempts. Talen Rabe had a 1- and 2-yard touchdown plunges. Quarterback Cooper Kellen was efficient through the air, completing 7 of 11 passes for 74 yards and two touchdowns.
Luke Meyers hauled in a 34-yard pass from Kellen to get the scoring started in the first. Kellen would connect with Tyler Richardson for a 9-yard TD in the second.
The D-E offense had the ball for 27 minutes, 32 seconds and was 5-for-10 on third down.
Owen Wallace recorded a team-best five tackles and had an interception to lead a D-E defensive unit that allowed just 119 total yards and nine first downs.
Mason Marquart accounted for the St. Charles TD with a 3-yard rush.
Dover-Eyota 35, St. Charles 8
D-E 14-7-14-0 — 35
St. Charles 0-8-0-0 — 8
Pine Island 50, Red Wing 0
RED WING — Nicholas Thein started his year with a bang, rushing for 192 yards and four touchdowns on just 11 carries as Pine Island took care of business against Red Wing.
Thein had rushing TDs of 12, 11, 14 and 12 yards and had a long rush of 50 as PI ran for 336 on 32 attempts as a team. Thein also had a 24-yard receiving touchdown. Landon Lowrie and Marshall Skierka had rushing TDs for the Panthers as well.
Quarterback Alexander Knox finished 6-for-11 for 106 yards with that TD pass to Thein in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the PI defense held the Red Wing rushing attack to just 2 yards on 24 carries.
Pine Island 50, Red Wing 0
PI 28-14-8-0 — 50
RW 0-0-0-0 — 0
ELGIN — The Lake City Tigers rolled to a victory in the season opener after leading 14-0 at halftime and 20-0 after three quarters.
Colter Hegge finished 14 of 18 passing for 188 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 82 yards and a score on the ground.
Lake City set the tone from the opening drive as Ellis Banks scored on a two-yard run to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.
Alex Ratz scored a 53-yard touchdown on a pass from Colter Hegge to put the Tigers in front 14-0 in the second quarter.
Hegge connected with Luke Narum for a 21-yard passing touchdown with 4:15 left in the third quarter that pushed the lead to 20-0.
Hegge scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak with 2:17 left to seal the victory, putting Lake City ahead 27-7.
Aidan Graner scored on a 4-yard run 4 minutes into the third to get PEM on the board, then he caught a 16-yard touchdown pass from Kayden Kasten with 12 second to go to cap the scoring.
Lake City’s Narum made three of four extra-point kicks and Banks and Hegge each recovered a fumble
The Tigers host La Crescent-Hokah next week in their home opener.
Lake City 27, Plainview-Elgin-Millville 14
Lake City 7-7-6-7 — 27
PEM 0-0-0-14 — 14
Cannon Falls 20, Randolph 14
RANDOLPH — The rematch proved to much closer than the first go-round.
Cannon Falls and Randolph, high schools separated by fewer than 10 miles, hadn’t met on the football field in seven decades prior to last year’s Section 4, Class 2A quarterfinal playoff game. Cannon Falls made that one a no-contest, winning 50-6 en route to a spot in the section title game.
Friday, the team’s met in the 2025 season opener and while the result was the same — a Bombers victory — the Rockets put up a much greater battle. In fact, the score was tied into the fourth quarter, before a 9-yard TJ Kyyra touchdown run provided the Bombers with the winning points.
The contest was a back-and-forth battle throughout.
Randolph struck first, when Noah Girgen hauled in a 55-yard scoring pass from Colton Ford with 3 minutes to go in the first quarter.
That was the Rockets only lead of the night, though.
Cannon Falls jumped ahead with a pair of second-quarter TDs, as Beck Swanson scored on an 8-yard run and Griffin Peterson added a 6-yard run for a 14-6 advantage.
Randolph tied it in the third, as Ford pushed in from 1 yard out.
That set the stage for Kyyra’s game-winning TD run with 9 minutes to play.
Cannon Falls used eight different ball carriers to amass 255 rushing yards; none of the backs had more than 65 yards (Trey Schoenfelder had 65). The Bombers outgained Randolph 292-235.
Cannon Falls 20, Randolph 14
Cannon Falls 0-14-0-6 — 20
Randolph 6-0-8-0 — 14
Rushford-Peterson 21, Caledonia 14
RUSHFORD — Carson Johnson broke a 14-14 third-quarter tie with a 4-yard rushing touchdown, and the Rushford-Peterson defense pitched a shutout in the second half to knock off perennial power Caledonia.
That was the second touchdown of the day for Johnson. He got the Trojans on the board with a 36-yard TD reception from Creighton Hoiness. The Trojans took a 14-7 lead on a 2-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Jaxon Meldahl.
Caledonia got on the board first with a Jack Schmitz 1-yard touchdown run. He tied the game with a 17-yard TD run in the second quarter, finishing the game with 83 yards on 13 carries. As a team, Caledonia tallied 205 yards rushing on 29 carries. Grant King led the way with 98 yards on eight carries, but three turnovers — two interceptions and a fumble — proved too much for the Warriors to overcome.
Rushford-Peterson 21, Caledonia 14
Caledonia 7-7-0-0 — 14
R-P 7-7-7-0 — 21
HAYFIELD — Christian Mealy returned the opening kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown and the Hayfield Vikings led for nearly the full 48 minutes in a 42-13 victory against visiting Medford on Friday.
Hayfield senior running back Kael Steele and the Vikings’ offensive line did much of the rest of the damage.
Steele had a monster game, rushing 23 times for 230 yards and five of his team’s six touchdowns; Mealy’s opening kick return was the only Vikings’ TD that wasn’t scored by Steele. He averaged exactly 10 yards per carry behind Hayfield’s massive line, and scored on runs of 3, 4, 13, 11 and 3 yards.
Steele ran for more than 180 yards in the first half alone.
He had three touchdowns in the first half and two more in the third quarter, before the game was stopped early — approximately 2 minutes into the fourth quarter — due to an injury to a Medford player, which caused an extensive delay.
Hayfield 42, Medford 13
Medford 0-7-6-0 — 13
Hayfield 14-14-14-0 — 42
Mabel-Canton 34, Grand Meadow 18
GRAND MEADOW — Isaac Underbakke and Kale Tollefsrud got it done on both ends as Mabel-Canton used a 22-point third quarter to win its opener at Grand Meadow.
Tollefsrud rushed for 68 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries, and also hauled in four receptions for 66 yards and two touchdowns. He also had an interception, two tackles for loss and finished with eight total tackles defensively.
Both of those touchdown receptions came courtesy of the arm of Underbakke, who finished 6-for-10 with 78 yards and touchdown passes of 27- and 23-yards. He also had a rushing touchdown as part of a 45-yard, nine-carry night with his legs. He had seven tackles with a pass breakup.
Kale Eiken led the MC rushing attack with 108 yards on 12 carries. His 30-yard touchdown run iced the game in the third quarter, giving MC a 34-10 lead.
Quarterback Carter Glynn led Grand Meadow with 102 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 12 carries. He was 3-for-7 with 57 yards through the air.
Mabel-Canton 34, Grand Meadow 18
M-C 0-12-22-0 — 34
GM 2-8-0-8 — 18
Kingsland 48, Faribault Bethlehem Academy 0
FARIBAULT — Kingsland made things look easy on Friday night, cruising to a 48-0 win over struggling Faribault Bethlehem Academy.
Star quarterback Kaaleem Reiland had a big night, rushing for 140 yards on 12 carries and scoring four touchdowns. He also had a touchdown pass and had another TD pass dropped.
Bentley Wiersma had 157 yards rushing on 11 carries and got into the end zone twice.
The FBA offense had little success against Kingsland’s defense. FBA tried to spread a pack of receivers out and pass the ball, but rarely converted its throws.
LANESBORO — The season-opening 9-Player football game between Houston and Lanesboro turned into a series of drag races in the second half, and Houston was able to take the checkered flag with a back-and-forth 42-20 victory.
After a tightly played first half, which ended with Houston on top 14-6, the teams combined for six touchdowns and 42 points in the third quarter, when the Hurricanes outscored the Burros 28-14.
Houston running back Lee Klunder scored all three of his touchdowns in the third — on runs of 10, 33 and 1 yards — as the Hurricanes pulled away. Lucas Burt added a 51-yard dash to the end zone to cap Houston’s scoring.
Klunder ran 22 times for 128 yards and helped the Hurricanes rush for 290 yards as a team. Quarterback Hector Steinfeldt had a big night, as well. He finished with 82 rushing yards and a touchdown, and 106 passing yards — on just 3 completions — and a touchdown.
Axel Vix caught all three of Steinfeldt’s completions, for 106 yards and a score.
Lanesboro had 324 total yards of offense, including 238 on the ground.
Houston 42, Lanesboro 20
Houston 8-6-28-0 — 42
Lanesboro 6-0-14-0 — 20
