Luke Imdieke takes Jack Strand’s 44th pass completion into end zone despite the efforts of Jarrett Bennett (20) and Andrew Klopp (4) with 0:00 left. (Photos by John Gilbert)

It took perhaps the most dramatic and sensational finish in recent memory — if not ever — to end UMD’s Northern Sun-opening home football game Saturday, as junior quarterback Jack Strand threw a touchdown pass with 0:00 on the Malosky Stadium scoreboard, and then, with incredible cool, fired a 2-point conversion pass to lift the Dragons to a 30-29 upset victory against the Bulldogs.

Strand, a 6-foot-5 gunslinger from Bloomer, Wis., had done almost the exact same thing with six minutes left to lift MSU Moorhead from a seemingly hopeless 29-14 deficit to within 29-22 proximity, but when the Dragons took over at their own 23 yard line after a missed UMD field goal, only 1:33 remained. 

On top of that, UMD defensive end Drew Hennessy nailed Strand for his third sack of the day, and the fifth time Strand went down under a tangle of Bulldogs.

But Strand, who filled the air with little sidearm flips on endless slant pass plays, did it again, connecting on repeated third- and fourth-down completions to reach the UMD 23 with 0:15 remaining. 

At that point, Stand connected with Madden Thorson, who got his toe down just inside the sideline for first and goal at the 3. 

MSU-Moorhead's Madden Thorson catches pass on UMD sideline for first down at the 3, with 0:15 remaining. 

After an incomplete pass left 0:03 on the clock, Strand zipped a pass to Luke Imdieke, who lunged across the goal line as the clock hit 0:00. 

After several time outs, by both teams, the Dragons lined up to “go for the win,” as coach Steve Laqua urged them, and Strand sent Brady Perryman knifing through the goal-line congestion, and hit him with his final pass of the day.

The 2-point conversion lifted the Dragons to an improbable 30-29 victory and the entire team streamed off the bench to smother Perryman at the back of the end zone.

The overflow crowd turned out for the 11th annual Military Appreciation Day, with all the armed service branches represented, and a flyover by two F-16 jet fighters, as well as an opening cordon by a dozen Harley Davidson riders on motorcycles that were far louder than the jets. 

Brady Perryman splits between Jarrett Bennett (20) and Preston McQueen (29) for 2-point conversion and 30-29 MSU-Moorhead win.

UMD also honored the memory of Reed Ryan, by retiring his No. 99 jersey in a pregame ceremony. 

Also, UMD had beaten MSU Moorhead 20 consecutive times and had been ranked first by NSIC coaches, while the Dragons were picked sixth.

UMD played well enough to win, and they stayed out on the field stunned for a half-hour afterward, while the Dragons celebrated. 

Kyle Walljasper, UMD’s junior quarterback, was 20-32 for 333 yards and three touchdowns — more than enough to beat nearly any foe. 

But Strand was 44-69 passing, for an amazing 418 yards and four touchdowns.

After the winning 2-point conversion, I asked Strand if it was a set play or if he was scrambling for survival and found Imdieke open. 

“No, I was kinda looking for him,” Strand said. “I always do. He’s got glue on his fingers, and I’m glad he’s on our team.”

There must be an abundance of glue in Moorhead, because while Imdieke caught 6 passes for 40 yards, Strand also hit Brady Perryman for 9 passes, 101 yards and three touchdowns, and Madden Thorson 12 times for 140 yards, and Gage Florence 10 times for 60 yards. 

Junior Jack Strand bedeviled UMD with short sidearm flips, completing 44 of 69 passes for 418 yards and four TDs.

UMD out-rushed the Dragons 152-6, but were out-passed 418-333.

When it was 29-22, Curt Cox, who had made field goals of 47, 25 and 40 yards, as well as two extra points, missed with 1:33 left — a field goal that would have put the game out of reach. 

But as it was, it still took several mind-blowing big plays by Arnold and his glue-fingered herd of receivers to reverse the numbers on the scoreboard. 

The Bulldogs only have a short time to recover from such a devastating setback, and they will face another pass-happy attack at the University of Mary Saturday

The Minnesota Vikings were still huge underdogs to the powerful San Francisco 49ers Sunday, but Sam Darnold put on another big show at quarterback, hitting star receiver Justin Jefferson for a 97-yard touchdown, and a later 26-yard strike to Jalen Nailor that clinched the Vikings 23-17 victory lifting them to the top of their division at 2-0, while Detroit, Green Bay and Chicago all have at least one loss. 

The bomb to Jefferson came after the Vikings defense had made a goal-line stand to stop the 49ers. He stepped back into the end zone and launched a missile that flew about 55 yards before settling into Jefferson’s hands, and he ran the rest of the way in.

There were several NFL games with last-play finishing drama last weekend, and while they all were highly entertaining, none of them could match the finish of the MSU Moorhead upset over UMD.