For a quarterback taking over the starting job, Izaak Johnson felt pretty good about how things played out Friday night.

The Cretin-Derham Hall junior threw for 139 yards and three touchdowns as the Raiders rolled past Tartan 34-6 in the season opener for both teams at O’Shaughnessy Stadium at the University of St. Thomas.

“It felt great,” Johnson said afterward. “I was super nervous at first, but then I realized it was the same game as always.

“My line was doing great and that helped. There are still a bunch of things we have to clean up as an offense. But overall, it was a good game.”

Johnson got things started by connecting with senior Monteff Dixon on a 21-yard touchdown pass with 1:15 to play in the first quarter, then junior Ja’Dale Thompson scored on a 16-yard run in the second.

Johnson finished the half with a 27-yard scoring strike to junior Sam Heath and a 16-yard touchdown pass to senior Owen Prestegaard to put his team on top 27-0 at halftime.

“Everybody has optimism the first game,” Raiders coach Steve Walsh said. “When you get a big lead, it kind of deflates the other team a little. But give them credit, they played hard in the second half. We played sloppy at times throughout the game, but we made enough big plays to win. So that was a good start.”

Indeed, , moving the ball and finally scoring on a 2-yard run by senior Bryant Saloe with 8:47 to play. But Cretin-Derham Hall added a final touchdown on a 23-yard run by Thompson with 3:48 remaining.

“We clearly weren’t awake in the first half and we challenged the kids at halftime,” Tartan coach Matt Diediker said. “It was good to see them respond. But like I told them at the end, you don’t get to count a victory in the second half. It’s the whole game.

“So we have a lot of areas to improve, but we did see some good things tonight.”

So did the Raiders, who next travel to Bemidji (1-0) for a game scheduled for 7 p.m. next Friday.

Senior Tommy Sticha finished with 13 carries for 110 yards against the Titans. Thompson carried the ball eight times for 60 yards and the two touchdowns.

“This was a nice start, but now we have to clean up the little things and focus on Bemidji,” Johnson said.

“(Bemidji) kind of gave us some fits last year,” added Walsh, whose team fell 14-7 to the Lumberjacks at home in 2023. “It was a close game, but we lost. There will be a lot of distractions. Leaving school a little early and a five-hour bus ride. We’re going to spend the night on campus (at Bemidji State) and take a college tour the next morning.

“We’re going to do a lot of interesting things. But first and foremost, we have to take care of the game.”

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Woodbury 13, Roseville 10: Roseville — who won one game a year ago and is in the midst of a rebuild in Year 2 under Andy Stephenson — took a 10-0 lead into the half on Friday off a scoring run from Sahmahjah Kelton and a field goal from Alejandro Ramos.

But the Royals responded in the second half with a pair of Emmett Snuggerud passing touchdowns; one to Dominic Ebensteiner and the go-ahead, 9-yard strike to Nolan Freymiller midway through the fourth quarter.

St. Croix Lutheran 16, South St. Paul 10: Matthew Beekman had a big night Friday for the Crusaders, striking a 41-yard field goal through the uprights in the first quarter to put his team up 3-0 and then — with St. Croix Lutheran leading 9-7 in the fourth — reeling in a 77-yard touchdown pass from Colin Avery to build the extend the lead to a two-score game.

Aiden Kraft scored the Packers’ lone touchdown in the third quarter — a 5-yard run.

St. Agnes 54, Twin Cities Charter 0: Bennett Bamsey and Joshua Lopez each tallied a pair of rushing touchdowns on a night when six different Aggies found pay dirt.

St. Agnes led 42-0 at the half.

Brainerd 42, Mahtomedi 7: Ty Nelson and Jaden Barnum each had a pair of rushing touchdowns for the Warriors, who convincingly downed Mahtomedi in the opener for the second consecutive season.

The Zephyrs’ only score came late in the third, when Connor Finn hit Joey Pipes for a 5-yard touchdown.

Bloomington Kennedy 33, Central 28: Central quarterback Allan Lankfard ran in three scores, but it wasn’t enough to dig the Minutemen out of a 20-6 halftime deficit.

Ladu Loro had three rushing touchdowns for the Eagles, while Malik Johnson threw for two scores.

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It was around 11 months ago when Pablo López and Kevin Gausman tangled the last time at Target Field.

Twins fans likely remember that game fondly: López outpitched Gausman, who allowed two home runs to Royce Lewis, in a 3-1 Twins victory that snapped an 18-game playoff losing streak.

There was much less on the line when the Twins and Blue Jays met this time around, but the pitching matchup suggested a pitcher’s duel could be in order and that’s exactly what the fans at Target Field got.

Gausman was good. López was better.

The Twins’ top starter turned in his third straight scoreless performance with 7 2/3 shutout frames on Friday in the Twins’ 2-0 win over the Blue Jays on Friday night at Target Field.

Minnesota, whose rotation has been depleted by injury, have desperately needed López to step up and be their ace. He’s done so in the second half of the season.

He was particularly sharp on Friday, not allowing a baserunner until the fifth inning and collecting groundballs as he cruised through inning after inning. López began the eighth inning and after getting the first two outs, he allowed a single to Nathan Lukes, prompting Rocco Baldelli to emerge from the dugout.

The Twins had both Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran warming in the bullpen, but Baldelli, after a quick chat, opted to leave López in.

A softly-hit ball to Royce Lewis at third went for an infield-hit, ending López’s night, but Jax helped keep the shutout intact, needing just three pitches to strikeout Daulton Varsho.

That preserved the two-run lead that the Twins had been protecting since the fifth inning when they finally broke through against Gausman. Jose Miranda led off the inning with a double and came home to score when Carlos Santana singled to right. Santana himself would score the second run of the game on a Willi Castro sacrifice fly.

Minnesota had just four hits in the game but came through to snap a four-game losing streak. When Santana singled home Miranda, it was the Twins’ first lead since the first inning on Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals.

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The Lynx have lived a lot this season on their 3-point shooting success. Friday in Dallas, it was part the team’s downfall.

Even more so was its lack of a consistent interior presence.

Thus, a seven-game winning streak came to an end via a 94-76 loss to the Wings.

Napheesa Collier led Minnesota with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Kayla McBride added 14 points. Bridget Carleton was 4 of 10 on 3s for her 12 points, but the rest of the Lynx combined to go 6 for 25 (24%) from outside the arc.

Minnesota entered the game as the league’s top 3-point shooting team at 39.2%.

Starting center Alanna Smith suffered a right ankle injury in the first quarter and gave it go a few times later. She finished with just two rebounds in 14 minutes and her absence left a hole in the middle that Dallas was able to exploit.

In winning its third straight, Dallas (9-22) had a 50-20 points-in-the-paint advantage, outrebounded the Lynx 38-32 and scored 25 points of 16 Minnesota turnovers. The Lynx had five points off eight Dallas turnovers.

Four of the its five starters, and six players overall, scored in double figures as Minnesota allowed its most points in a game since a June 27 loss in Dallas.

Outscoring Minnesota by 10 in the third quarter, the Wings used an early 9-0 fourth-quarter run to push its lead to 77-60.

Minnesota made just two of its first 15, and trailed 34-22 midway through the second. But the Lynx made a trio of treys — two by Carleton — as part of a 14-2 run to tie the game late in the first half. Minnesota led by one at the break.

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