ROCHESTER – With all momentum swinging against the Blooming Prairie football team, senior Payton Simon sensed the moment and he made an impact that sent the Awesome Blossoms to the Minnesota Class A State Football Tournament as BP beat Goodhue 21-18 in the Section 1A title game in RCTC Saturday.

Goodhue (9-2 overall) had forced two straight BP turnovers and scored two straight touchdowns to pull within 14-12 mid-way through the third quarter when Simon caught a kick-off, turned up field and cruised down the right sidline for an 86-yard TD that put the Blossoms (11-0 overall) up 21-12 with 2:37 left in the third quarter.

Simon also hauled in a 20-yard TD pass from Kaden Thomas to put BP up 14-0 right before halftime, but BP’s offense struggled in the second half as it committed three turnovers.

“They were getting a lot of penetration and they were blitzing heavy through the backside B-gap and we just weren’t picking up on it,” Simon said. “We just needed a sparkplug and every game needs a sparkplug and that was the time to do it right there and then.”

While BP’s offense struggled, it’s defense stayed dominant. Colton Krell and Gabe Hagen each picked off first half passes that set up BP scores and the Blossoms finished the game with eight sacks, four interceptions and they held Goodhue to 40 yards on the ground.

“A ton of credit goes to our defense. We put the defense in a bad position a couple of times, but our offense made enough plays to get to 21 points and our defense really kept us in the game,” BP head coach Chad Gimbel said.

Jarrett Larson had four sacks in the win for BP, including a game-clinching takedown on the final play of the game.

“All season our defensive line has been doing a great job of getting to the quarterback and the running backs and the D-backs do a great job of covering and that makes it a lot easier,” Larson said. “I just happened to make a great play at the end and it feels awesome.”

BP will now play in its first state tournament since 2014 when the Blossoms take on United South Central (12-0 overall) in New Ulm at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ve got to get ready to go on Monday and get back to practice,” Simon said. “We’ve got USC and they’re not a bad team, they’re a good team. We’ve got to back to the grindstone and go play again.”

SCORING SUMMARY

Goodhue 0 0 18 0 – 18
BP 6 8 7 0 – 21

First quarter

(BP) Matthew Pryor 3 pass from Kaden Thomas (kick failed) (4 plays, 36 yards) 6:24

Second quarter

(BP) Payton Simon 20 pass from Thomas (Tim Wolf from Thomas) (3 plays, 22 yards) 2:36

Third quarter

(G) Kaleb O’Reilly 1 run (pass failed) (4 plays, 43 yards) 5:12
(G) Carter Danielson 20 pass from Sam Opsahl (run failed) (3 plays, 20 yards) 2:52
(BP) Simon 86 return (Carson Brennecke kick) (1 play, 86 yards) 2:37
(G) Kyle Schoenfelder 14 run (pass failed) (4 plays, 62 yards) 1:14

Fourth quarter

No scoring

BP STATS

Rushing: Matthew Pryor, 14-for-34; Alex Baldwin, 4-for-23; Payton Simon, 4-for-5; Tim Wolf, 1-for-2; Kaden Thomas, 7-for-(-1)

Passing: Thomas, 15-for-23, 178, 2 TD, 2 INT

Receiving: Wolf, 5-for-106, TD; Pryor, 4-for-42, TD; Badlwin, 5-for-26; Simon, 1-for-16

BP defense: Colin Lerum, 1 interception; Colton Krell, 1 interception; Tim Wolf, 1 intecerption; Gabe Hagen, 1 interception; Jarett Larson, 4 sacks; Trenton Swenson, 2 sacks

GOODHUE STATS

Rushing: 36

Passing: 259

Penalties: 8-for-60