Cretin-Derham Hall senior tight end Andrew Mooney, surrounded by jubilant teammates, shouted to assistant coach Rob "Bo" Bollinger to "keep dreaming those dreams."
Mooney said Bollinger approached him earlier in the week and said, " 'Mooney, I have a dream you're going to make a touchdown this week.' First time he's ever said it and it came true."
Mooney's first career touchdown reception — one of his team's two fourth-quarter scores — extended Cretin-Derham Hall's dream season. Friday night's 28-14 victory over Edina in the Class 6A state football quarterfinals sends the once-elite Raiders to the semifinals for the first time since 2011. They will play Minnetonka at Friday night at U.S. Bank Stadium.
"It's been a special and fun season and I'm glad we get to do it another week," said Raiders coach Brooks Bollinger, Rob's son.
Cretin-Derham Hall (8-2) celebrated at White Bear Lake's stadium thanks to big scoring plays and a defense that squeezed Edina (8-3) into repeated red zone hiccups.
A 14-0 halftime score resulted from the Raiders striking for two touchdowns and Edina ending all three of its first-half drives by turning the ball over on downs.
"Edina is a real good, physical football team," Brooks Bollinger said. "We would bend but not really break."
Twice the Hornets lost possession on incomplete passes at the Cretin-Derham Hall 18-yard line.
"We just struggled with some mishaps in the red zone," Edina coach Derrin Lamker said. "You can't do that against a good team like Cretin."
Undaunted, Edina converted on fourth down to extend its opening drive of the second half. Matt Cavanagh finished the drive solely consisting of run plays with a 2-yard touchdown plunge and the Hornets trailed 14-7.
Mooney bumped the lead to 21-7 on a tremendous effort, taking the ball away from an Edina defender near the goal line. After seeing an apparent touchdown reception last season called back on a penalty, Mooney made sure Friday's chance counted.
"We both went up, he caught it, I ripped it out of his hands and that was that," Mooney said.
Zion Guerra iced the game on his second touchdown run, a 44-yard burst with 1:27 left.
