Area playoff football roundup from Saturday

The top-seeded and No. 2 ranked team in Class A football, the Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms were in action at home Saturday evening against four-seeded Randolph in the Section 1A semi-finals, and Blossoms quarterback Kaden Thomas lit up the cool night sky with 393 yards passing and seven touchdowns as BP rolled by the Rockets 56-27.

Thomas hit Gabe Hagen with a 10-yard touchdown pass to put Blooming Prairie in the lead 6-0, and Mitchell Fiebiger hauled in the first of his three touchdown passes later in the quarter from 31 yards out to increase the Blossoms’ lead to 13-0.

BP busted the game wide open in the second quarter as a 5-yard touchdown pass to Fiebiger, a 15-yard TD pass to Alex Baldwin, another scoring strike to Fiebiger for 83 yards and a 44-yard scoring strike to Baldwin increased the Blooming Prairie lead to 40-0.  A 9-yard touchdown pass from Rocket quarterback Nick Drinken to Isaac Stoesz made the score 40-6 at the half after a missed two-point conversion.

Thomas threw his seventh and final touchdown pass of the game in the third quarter as he found Zach Weber for a 35-yard TD and a 47-6 lead after the extra point.  Blooming Prairie backup quarterback Drew Kittleson also got into the act in the quarter when he connected with Cole Christianson on a 1-yard touchdown pass to increase BP’s lead to 54-6.  The other score for Blooming Prairie was a fourth quarter safety, and Drinken threw three more touchdown passes to account for the final score.

For the game, Thomas was 21 of 26 for 393 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception, and Kittleson wound up 7 for 12 for 32 yards and a score.  Matthew Prior led the Blossoms in rushing with seven carries for 34 yards, Tyler Archer also carried the ball seven times for 33 yards and Kittleson toted the ball four times for 41 yards.  Eight different Blossom receivers had at least one catch, led by Baldwin who caught nine balls for 119 yards and two touchdowns, Fiebiger hauled in three passes for a whopping 119 yards and the three scores and Hagen added four catches for 87 yards and a TD.

Blooming Prairie raises their record to 9-0 with the win, and they will take on three-seeded Goodhue for the Section 1A title Friday night at Triton High School in Dodge Center at 7 p.m.   The Wildcats downed No. 2 seed Rushford-Peterson 34-18, and it will be the third straight year that the two teams will meet to decide the section title.

In LeRoy, the number one-seeded and No. 2 ranked team in the state in Class 9-man, the LeRoy/Ostrander Cardinals hosted the No. 5 seeded  Houston Hurricanes in the Section 1 semi-finals, and the Hurricanes took advantage of five Cardinal turnovers and Wyatt Walters ran for four TD’s in a 44-18 win.

The Cardinals led 12-6 on two touchdown runs from Chase Johnson sandwiched around a 5-yard TD run by Walters, but the Hurricanes went into the lead late in the quarter on a 3-yard touchdown run by Walters and added to their lead after recovering an onsides kick on the ensuing kickoff and hitting on a trick play for another touchdown just nine seconds later when wide receiver Alex Van Gundy threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Caiden Olson to give Houston a 20-12 lead.

After a scoreless second quarter, the Hurricanes added to their lead in the third when Walters went into the end zone from five yards out and added a 10-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter to push the lead to 36-12.  Houston added another touchdown run with just over 4:30 to go in the game before the Cardinals got back on the scoreboard with a 6-yard touchdown run by Carter Johnson to account for the final score.

Chase Johnson led LeRoy/Ostrander in rushing with 18 carries for 129 yards and two touchdowns, while Carter Johnson carried the ball 18 times for 80 yards and a score.  Chase Johnson passing was 9 for 22 for 100 yards and three interceptions, and Riley Olson led the Cardinals in receving with five catches for 66 yards.

The Cardinals finish a fantastic season with a record of 9-1, while Houston moves to 7-3 with the win.  The Hurricanes move on to the Section 1 9-man final Friday night at Art Hass Stadium in Austin against Grand Meadow, who came from behind to defeat Spring Grove Saturday evening 24-14.  You’ll hear the game on AM 1480 KAUS, with pre-game at 6:30 and kickoff at 7:00 p.m.  You can also catch the broadcast at myaustinminnesota.com, and on the I Heart Radio app.