KINDRED (NewsDakota)- The Jamestown Blue Jays made their first appearance in the playoffs since 2024, and on Friday night, they gave the mighty Kindred Vikings a massive scare.

But the Class AA favorites made one more play.

An interception with 23 seconds left lifted the top-seeded Kindred Vikings to a 28-21 win over Jamestown at Jerlow Field in a Class AA quarterfinal in an instant classic.

After the Blue Jays (3-7) went three-and-out, the Vikings (10-0) marched down the field but on a jet sweep, Myles Thielges fumbled the ball through the end zone for a touchback.  From there, Jamestown went on a 10-play, 80-yard drive, capped by Brady Nenow’s four-yard touchdown toss to Kale Verke for a 7-0 lead.

Kindred immediately responded with a drive capped by a five yard scoring run by Thielges to tie the game at 7.  But Jamestown went down the field in the second quarter and Nenow lofted a perfect pass on a wheel route to Braden Hemminger for a 20-yard touchdown and the Jays led at the half 14-7.

But after Jamestown got a stop to begin the third quarter, Colton Gerlach muffed the punt and Kindred recovered at the 19.  From there, on fourth down, Jackson Schlieman found Clemson signee Luke Starcevic for a 20 yard touchdown to tie the game at 14.  Nenow then was picked off by Graham Hesse, who returned the interception 40 yards for a touchdown and a 21-14 lead.

Kindred then added to the lead on another fourth down, this time on a hook-and-ladder from Schlieman to Thielges, who tossed to RB Brock Johnson, who carried into the end zone for a 28-14 fourth quarter lead.  But Jamestown pulled out the tricks too, with Aidan Skari finding Verke from 41 yards to cut the lead to 28-21.

With 2:30 left, the Blue Jays got a fourth down stop and methodically moved down the field all the way to the Vikings’ 19 yard line, but after a holding penalty, Nenow was intercepted and Kindred could breath a massive sigh of relief.

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