Week 7 of the 2025 Minnesota high school football season is past. We can’t linger over it long because Week 8’s big day is Wednesday, the final day of the regular season. Here’s a look at three more games that stood out, and follow these links to see other moments you missed:

• Watch the replay: “Strib Varsity Live With Randy Shaver” Episode 8
• Read the recap: Week 7’s biggest moments
• How the Minnesota Top 25 fared in Week 7

Centennial 28, Blaine 21

Centennial secured victory Friday when an interception that had stayed just out of reach finally landed in the Cougars’ hands.

Blaine drove into the red zone with a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter at Blaine, but a holding penalty backed up the Bengals. Jameson Niska threw a touchdown pass to Elijah Johnston, but another holding penalty took the points off the board.

Then Niska tried to hit Johnston up the seam, but Cougars defensive back Justin Driver undercut the third-down throw and made an interception at the 3-yard line. The Cougars took over with 4:13 left and ran out the clock.

Centennial head coach Mike Diggins said Driver had that interception lined up more than once.

“He came really close a couple times earlier but just missed,” Diggins said. “He just sat that one.”

The Cougars (6-1) took a 14-0 lead on touchdown runs by quarterback Isaac Belinske-Strauss in the first quarter and Edwin (Inyene) Ekah in the second. Belinske-Strauss capped a 14-play, 80-yard drive with a 7-yard TD run for the winning score with 7:31 left.

“Edwin has been running hard,” Diggins said. “Isaac is just reading [the defense]. On the last drive, we had a veer called. Isaac saw something and [changed the play], which is fine.”

The Bengals (4-3) got back in the game in the third quarter on three touchdowns from Niska that tied it 21-21. The junior quarterback threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Mancell and ran for two more TDs.

“We just had to settle down,” Diggins said. “We felt we could move the ball.”

Tanner Dittrich interrupted the Bengals’ scoring spree with a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown immediately after the first Bengals score.

St. Michael-Albertville 29, Moorhead 27

The Knights held off a late rally by the host Spuds to pick up their second win of the season.

Austin Dryburgh threw two touchdown passes to David Mack in the fourth quarter to get the Spuds within a two-point conversion. Dryburgh’s pass to tie the score fell incomplete.

“They’ve got a pretty dynamic passing offense,” St. Michael-Albertville head coach Jared Essler said. “We had a new young linebacker, Isaiah Ophoven, break up the pass.”

The Spuds (3-4) took a 13-0 lead early in the second quarter on Taye Reich’s second rushing touchdown of the game. Reich carried 18 times for 200 yards.

Ty Haring led the Knights’ comeback with three touchdown passes and a 6-yard scoring run. The Knights (2-5) scored 29 straight points, including a two-point conversion in the second quarter. Elijah Lewis caught two of the touchdown passes, and Alex Cilke caught the other.

“Ty is a great athlete. He is the fastest player we have,” Essler said. “He was the difference. He does a good job protecting the ball and taking chunk plays that are there.”

Wyatt Mosher rushed 25 times for 154 yards for St. Michael-Albertville.

Byron 29, Stewartville 26

The final seconds of each half made the difference for Byron.

Elijah Rodemeyer threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Beau Nicklay with one second left in the game, giving the Bears the victory over the host Tigers. That came after Brevin Brakke scored with 20 seconds left in the first half to give the Bears a 14-6 lead at halftime.

“It was a pretty wild game,” Byron head coach Ben Halder said. “Played well on both sides of the ball from both teams.”

The winning points came after some adjustment.

“Our offensive coordinator modified one of our pass plays to run off the defender and get out of bounds around the 10- or 15-yard line,” Halder said. “Then we can run a regular play from there.”

The 40-yard pass to Nicklay featured its own advantage, Halder said: “Beau is a really good athlete.”

The Bears (7-0) took a 21-14 lead with 9:19 left in the fourth quarter on a touchdown run by Carson Heimer. Heimer is up to 1,320 rushing yards and 20 touchdowns this season.

The Tigers (5-2) rallied on touchdown runs by Simon Emanuel and Malik Abdi in a 1:58 span to take a 26-21 lead with 49 seconds left in the game. It was Abdi’s third touchdown run of the game.

Rodemeyer threw a touchdown pass to Mason Helland to get the Bears on the board with 4:43 left in the first quarter.

Byron, ranked first in Class 4A, is 4-0 in the difficult Skyway Brass district. Kasson-Mantorville, ranked third, is 3-1, and Stewartville, ranked fourth, is 2-2.