Surprising South St. Paul may have been off to its best start since 2016, but that didn’t phase sophomore running back Grady Buettner and his Hill-Murray teammates on Friday night.

Buettner rushed for just over 100 yards and three touchdowns as the Pioneers handed the Packers their first loss of the season, posting a 35-14 victory on Homecoming night at Mary Queen of Victory Stadium.

Hill-Murray improved to 4-1 this season — its lone setback coming against Byron, the top ranked team in Class 4A, on Sept. 12. South St. Paul — tied for No. 8 in the most recent Class 4A poll — fell to 4-1.

Things couldn’t have started in worse fashion for the Packers. After receiving the opening kickoff, they fumbled on their first play from scrimmage when senior quarterback Sincere Casarez-McCampbell was tripped up after taking the snap.

Four plays later, facing a 4th-and-1, Buettner scored on a 7-yard run to put the Pioneers on top 7-0.

On its next possession, Hill-Murray struck again on 4th-and-5 at the South St. Paul 28-yard line. Freshman quarterback Brayden Hartmann connected with sophomore Brady Reeves on a 28-yard scoring strike that extended the lead to 14-0.

Then, after his team got the ball back at the Packers’ 48, Buettner made it 21-0 on a 2-yard touchdown run with 9:29 to play before halftime.

But South St. Paul didn’t fold.

One play after recording an interception, Casarez-McCampbell found senior Ben Thrun breaking free on a 40-yard touchdown catch. The 2-point conversion attempt failed, but the Packers cut the gap to 20-6.

The Pioneers had a chance to widen their lead just before halftime after recovering a fumble at the South St. Paul 21. But a 38-yard field goal attempt with under a second remaining came up short.

Yet, the Hill-Murray offense continued to pile up points in the second half, first on a 3-yard touchdown run by Buettner, then on a 1-yard run by senior Levi Grigson that put the Pioneers on top 35-6 with 46.5 seconds to play in the third quarter.

Senior Jake Baldus added a final South St. Paul touchdown on a 55-yard run with 1:01 left to play.

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PHILADELPHIA — Joe Ryan started on Friday night and put his team in a decent position to earn a win. Innings later, Jhoan Duran’s familiar intro played on the stadium scoreboard and the closer trotted in to nail down the save.

Just as the Twins drew it up, right?

Not quite.

Duran, of course, was traded at the July 31 trade deadline, along with many of his teammates. The flame-throwing closer, instead, was in sealing up a 3-1 Phillies’ win over the Twins on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Not much has gone to plan for the Twins this season, but Ryan’s season — which officially concluded on Friday night — was one of the things that has. Though he was outdueled by Aaron Nola, whose bid for perfection was broken up by Christian Vázquez’s solo home run with two outs in the sixth inning, Ryan turned in one final strong start to cap the best season of his career.

On Friday night, he limited the Phillies to two runs on five hits in his five innings pitched, featuring some of his best stuff of the season. His four-seam fastball, for example, was up nearly 2 mph from his season average.

Ryan pitched in 31 games (30 starts) and posted a 3.47 ERA across a career-high 171 innings pitched.  While his second half of the season was rockier than the first — he had a 2.72 ERA before the all-star break and a 4.92 ERA after it — Ryan’s season represented another step forward as he was named an all-star for the first time in his career and established himself amongst the game’s best.

He took the loss Friday against Nola, who was virtually unsolvable for the Twins all night. Nola threw a season-high eight innings in the Phillies’ win, striking out nine. Aside from Vázquez’s home run, he gave up one other hit, a Kody Clemens leadoff triple in the eighth. Clemens ended the inning standing on third.

The Twins later mounted a challenge against Duran with both Vázquez and Ryan Jeffers collecting ninth-inning hits before he got Trevor Larnach to fly out to end the game.

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PHILADELPHIA — Jhoan Duran has heard about “Red October” and snippets about what postseason baseball is like in Philadelphia, but the Phillies closer is finding it hard to envision. After all, pitching in front of passionate fans at a packed Citizens Bank Park has made every night feel like the playoffs to him.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “I feel like when I played for Minnesota in the ’23 playoffs. That’s what I feel like when I pitch over here every day.”

Duran was traded to the Phillies on July 30, a day before the Twins’ front office imploded the roster, making seven more trades. The first of those was sending outfielder Harrison Bader to Philadelphia, as well, where the two now are thriving as the National League East winning-Phillies prepare for a playoff run.

Entering Friday’s contest with the Twins, Duran had a 2.29 ERA in 19 2/3 innings pitched with the Phillies. He has almost as many saves (15) as he did in the first four months of the season with the Twins (16). Bader, meanwhile, has become the Phillies’ every day center fielder. Entering Friday, he was hitting .314 with an .850 OPS since joining the Phillies.

“There are a lot of things that happen in the game that … are out of your control. When things do work out well, and I think a team does right by you and allows you to continue your season playing meaningful baseball, I’m very, very grateful for it,” Bader said.

The 31-year-old is playing for his sixth different organization, and July’s trade marked the second time he had been dealt at the deadline. A veteran on an expiring contract, a trade was expected.

But it was a newer experience for Duran, who was traded as a minor leaguer but had only ever played for the Twins as a major leaguer, and has two more seasons before he hits free agency. Duran said he was playing in his backyard with his son when he got the call letting him know he had been traded.

“I was shocked a little bit. It’s not like a big surprise to me because I knew maybe something would happen, but I didn’t want to accept the idea that something would happen,” Duran said. “That’s a surprise to me because I wanted to be on the team. They gave me the opportunity to be in the major leagues for a first time and I wanted to be there for a long time. They gave me a good opportunity here, too, so I’ll take it.”

From the moment he stepped onto the Citizens Bank Park diamond, Duran has been a hit in Philadelphia. Along with the closer, the Twins also sent along his electric entrance, which quickly went viral on social media when the Phillies introduced it for the first time.

And soon, it very well could be used in postseason play once again as the duo — along with former Twin Max Kepler — chase after a World Series ring.

“I’m just really glad the Twins dealt me to a contender,” Bader said. “I don’t want to speak for Duran, but I’m sure he feels the same way.”

Briefly

Mick Abel, whom the Twins received as part of the return for Duran, will start Saturday night’s game for Minnesota against Philadelphia. … Kody Clemens, whom the Twins acquired from the Phillies in April, got a nice round of applause from the fans during his first-inning at-bat.

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By JIM VERTUNO

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — DNA evidence has helped to identify a new suspect in the unsolved killing of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop in 1991, a man who died by suicide in 1999, police said Friday.

In a statement, police said they had made a “significant breakthrough” and that DNA tests have led investigators to Robert Eugene Brashers. Police said the case known as the “Yogurt Shop Murders” remains open and scheduled a Monday news conference to detail their findings.

“Our team never gave up working this case,” Austin police said in a statement.

Amy Ayers, 13; Eliza Thomas, 1; and sisters Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, ages 17 and 15, were bound, gagged and shot in the head at the “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” store where two of them worked. The building was then set on fire.

The murders stunned Texas’ capital city and became known as one of the area’s most notorious crimes. Two men who were teenagers at the time of the murders were later tried, convicted and sent to death row and life in prison before their convictions were eventually reversed on appeal.

The case was also the subject of “The Yogurt Shop Murders,” an HBO documentary series that came out last month.

Brashers died in 1999 when he shot himself during an hours-long standoff with police at a motel in Kennett, Missouri.