The purple seats at US Bank Stadium were populated with fans from St. Paul Academy, Minnehaha Academy and Blake who saw Siegel Howard score two fourth quarter touchdowns, including the game winner with 8:05 left to play that led the SMB Wolfpack to a 23-15 win over the Waseca Blue Jays in the Class AAAA semifinals Thursday in Minneapolis.
Neither team scored in the first quarter though Howard ran for 23 yards on the final three plays that spotted the ball on the Blue Jays seven yard line. On the first play of the second quarter, Jalen Suggs, who also excels on the basketball court for Minnehaha Academy, threw a seven yard right side pass to Craig McDonald to put the Wolfpack ahead. Waseca would tie the game on a 12 yard touchdown pass from Hunter Rodriguez to Kyreese Willingham. After the replay official reviewed the play to see if Kyreese Willingham crossed the left pylon, it was ruled a touchdown. SMB would regain the lead on a 31 yard field goal from Theo Crosby with :30 left in the half and the Wolfpack led at the half 10-7.
The Blue Jays surged into the lead in the third quarter as Kyreese Willingham's brother Malik caught a 25 yard pass from Rodriguez to lead 15-10. Waseca had a chance to extend their lead after Mathhew Olsem recovered a McDonald fumble. But the Wolfpack defense prevailed as Bennett Thiesen made an outstanding tackle that lost two yards and forced Waseca to punt.
SMB would get the ball back in the fourth quarter and Suggs would convert on fourth and one that also added nine yard more yards due to a personal foul penalty on Waseca. It would pay off for the Wolfpack as Howard would score the eventual game winner on a two yard run with 8:05 left in regulation time. There would be good news for the Blue Jays when Andrew Morgan blocked Jack Mahler's punt. Could Waseca seek a win on this wet Thursday? The answer would be no when Rodriguez on the first play of the drive was intercepted by Andrew Mollison. It would be Wolfpack ball and they would clinch a berth in next week's Prep Bowl as Suggs threw a 53 yard completion to Kaden Johnson and Howard go up the middle for a 15 yard touchdown run. The Blue Jays had another chance to possibly send the game into overtime but Howard also displayed his defensive prowess when he stopped Joe Hagen on fourth and one and SMB got the ball back. They would run out the clock to end the game.
SMB was led by Howard, who rushed for 125 yards. Rodriguez led Waseck with 8 of 14 completions for 104 yards and 87 rushing yards.
The Wolfpack improved their record to 12-0 and will face the Willmar-St. Paul Johnson winner for the Class AAAA title on Friday, November 23 at 4 PM at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Blue Jays ended their season with a record of 10-3.
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