On fourth down, with the ball on Woodbury’s 22-yard line, the Royals were set to punt when Mounds View senior Jeff Galdamez got the call from his sideline to not set up a return.

With his coach’s blessing to go after a block with under a minute left in the first half, Galdamez saw an unblocked lane and burst through.

The ball hit his outstretched hands, and he scooped it up on the 1-yard line before he was tackled. Three plays later, Mustangs quarterback Ryan Nickel scored on a 1-yard rushing touchdown, giving Mounds View a 13-7 lead. The Mustangs never trailed again and went on to a 28-26 victory over Woodbury.

“I feel like that is going to bother me the rest of my life,” Galdamez said of failing to score on the blocked punt. “But our offense scored, and I’m glad they did.”

The Royals (3-4) nearly executed a fourth-quarter rally, scoring 13 points in 2 minutes, 15 seconds. But Mounds View (5-2) recovered an onside kick attempt with 1 minute, 28 seconds left.

“The way momentum swung back and forth in all the special teams tonight was unbelievable,” Mounds View coach Jim Galvin said.

"[Woodbury] has the best athletes I have seen this year, but our defense was outstanding tonight.”

Ellis L. Williams

Mounds View quarterback Ryan Nickel rushed for two touchdowns and accounted for 124 total yards as the Mustangs defeated Woodbury 28-26 in an East Metro Blue district matchup on the Mustangs’ senior night.

Woodbury senior Nico Bolden returned the opening kickoff 65 yards to start the game.

Despite a couple of special team mishaps that nearly allowed the Royals (3-4) to rally back, the Mounds View defense held on. It forced three turnover on downs and blocked a punt that set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Nickel that gave the Mustangs (5-2) the lead 20 seconds before halftime.

Woodbury receiver Jeremiah Codden caught seven passes for 114 yards.

Check back later for more on the game.