The final game of the 2021 Prep Bowl featured Alex Dittbenner throwing two touchdown passes to lead the Mankato West Cougars to a 21-10 win over the Mahtomedi Zephyrs Saturday afternoon in the Class AAAAA Football Championship Game at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
It was the fifth state title for Mankato West in the 13th state tournament appearance and their first Class AAAAA championship since 2014.
Many red and black clad Scarlet fans (as well as The Blogger) who were stuck in line waiting to enter the US Bank Stadium's purple seats missed the Mankato West defense coming up big when Mahtomedi's Gunnar Woods fumbled and Ryan Haley recovered and went 34 yards into the woods for the touchdown. The Scarlets would go up by 14 as Dittbenner would rush for 37 yards on three plays and fire a nine yard pass to Brady Haugum on first and goal with :20 left in the quarter.
Mankato West, the top ranked team in Class AAAAA most of the season had trouble hanging on to the ball, losing three fumbles. The first was recovered by the Zephyrs Dominic Rohrer and it gave Mahtomedi an opportunity to cut the lead to seven. But they would only gain one yard on three plays thanks to the Scarlet defense and Joseph Heinsch would put the Zephyrs on the board with a 31 yard field goal. Mankato West led 14-3 at the half.
The Zephyrs would inch closer to the Scarlets in the third quarter when Charles Brandt completed a 34 yard pass to Woods but he fumbled and this time he recovered the ball at the Mankato West four yard line. They would cash in on Jordan Hull's one yard touchdown run. However, the Scarlets would widen their lead to 11 when Dittbenner threw a 13 yard touchdown pass to Gibson Blackstad.
Mankato West would conclude the scoring in the fourth quarter on Drew Smook's 35 yard field goal with 4:17 to go. Mahtomedi had a chance to narrow the lead to seven on their final drive but once again the Scarlet defense came through on Haley's sack or Brandt and on fourth and 16, Brandt's pass to Quinn Walek was deflected by Damian Riewe and the Scarlets got the ball and ran out the clock to send the fans down Highway 169 home happy.
Dittbenner led Mankato West completing 11 of 18 passes for 121 yards and rushing for 48 yards. Mahtomedi was led by Ethan Loss who gained 130 yards on seven completions.
The Scarlets ended their season with a 13-0 record and Mahtomedi finished with a record of 10-3.
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