BRAINERD — Class 5A’s third-ranked Moorhead Spuds showed offensive fire-power from beginning to end in a 50-15 win over the Brainerd Warriors Friday, Sept. 20.

Sophomore quarterback Jett Feeney threw for 373 yards and six touchdowns on 26-36 passing and connected with seven different receivers to lead the Spuds’ offense.

David Mack caught nine passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Reign Battle caught four passes for 88 yards and two touchdowns.

“I really liked our kids’ look in the pregame warmups,” Spuds’ head coach Kevin Feeney said. “I really felt like we were focused and knew the task at hand. This was a very good Brainerd team and we knew it was going to be a physical game.”

Moorhead scored touchdowns on all five of its drives in the first half and added a special teams touchdown to take a 41-7 advantage into halftime.

Feeney threw for five touchdowns in the first half, including two to Battle.

After a Brainerd punt to start the game, Moorhead needed 11 plays to go 71 yards and score on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Feeney to David Mack.

Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch

After another Brainerd punt, the Spuds used three plays to go 55 yards when Feeney connected with Battle for a 36-yard touchdown.

On Brainerd’s third punt of the first quarter, the Spuds’ blocked it and Moorhead’s Jonah Horan recovered it and ran it in the end zone for a touchdown.

Moorhead led 21-0 after the first quarter. The Warriors offense showed life when Ty Nelson found Izaac Vanek for a 39-yard touchdown to cut Moorhead’s lead to 21-7.

The second quarter was filled with turnovers and penalties for the Warriors.

After the Spuds scored on Feeney’s 20-yard pass to Jaimeson Dunlap, Moorhead’s Eric Kiyee intercepted Nelson, which set up Moorhead’s running back Taye Reich’s 45-yard touchdown reception to make it 35-7 Spuds.

“Jett (Feeney) does a good job of making sure the football gets to where it’s supposed to,” Kevin Feeney said. “He is not locking in on one guy because we feel like we have a lot of guys who can make plays. We are going to let the defense tell us where the football is going to go.”

Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch

Moorhead’s Owen Thielges then picked off Brainerd’s Izaak Vanek when the Warriors tried a trick play. Thielges returned it into Brainerd territory to set up Moorhead’s last drive of the first half.

Feeney found Battle for a 29-yard touchdown pass with 54 seconds left to make it 41-7 Spuds.

“We have tremendous speed on this football team,” Kevin Feeney said. “We are continuing to grow in the playbook and that’s fun. I think this team really had a different focus this week because we ended our season here last year.”

The Warriors committed nine penalties for 85 yards in the first half and gave the Spuds three first downs on penalties.

“When you play a team of that caliber you cannot come out and play as undisciplined as we did in that first half,” Warriors’ head coach Jason Freed said. “You can’t have those penalties and bone head plays that we made. We exposed a lack of discipline in that first half and that’s on us as coaches and as players to fix that. Penalties are usually 95% mental and I think we had a few of those tonight.”

Brainerd’s defense forced the Spuds to turn it over on downs on fourth and goal to start the second half.

The Warriors lined up to punt on their first possession of the second half and the snap went over the punter’s head into the end zone for a safety.

Moorhead used the free kick possession to score a 43-yard touchdown as Feeney found Mack for his second touchdown. The Spuds led 50-7 after three quarters.

Brainerd’s Henry Goodwin scored a 1-yard touchdown with 8:43 left to make it 50-15. Goodwin finished with 47 yards on three carries all in the second half. Jayden Barnum led the Warriors in rushing with 55 yards on 15 carries.

“I thought we defended the run really well,” Kevin Feeney said. “Our point of emphasis all last week was to get 11 hats to the football. “

It won’t get any easier for the Warriors next week as they travel to play Class 5A’s second-ranked Alexandria Friday, Sept. 27.

“Section 8-5A football right now is as good as football gets in Class 5A,” Freed said. “That’s awesome and it’s a hats off to all the programs in Section 8-5A. It’s super tough this year and Alexandria poses more problems. We are going to have to get back to doing things the right way and focus on us.”

CONRAD ENGSTROM may be reached at 218-855-5861 or conrad.engstrom@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/the_rad34.

Moorhead 50, Warriors 15
Key: Moorhead racks up 373 yards passing and 455 total yards.
Subdistrict: Brd 1-1, M 2-0.
Overall: Brd 2-2, M 4-0.
Next: Brainerd at Alexandria 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27.