To quote the late British poet William Blake, it was "Tiger tiger burning bright" Saturday at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis as two teams nicknamed the Tigers took home championship trophies and a memorable game to wrap up the 2023 Prep Bowl. Here's a recap of Day Two.
NEVIS 14, KINGSLAND 12
There's an age old question in a classic children's book "Do Tigers Ever Bite Kings?" For the Nevis Tigers, the answer was yes as their defense took a bite out of the Kingsland Knights offense with two first half touchdowns to win their first state title 14-12 in the Class Nine Player Championship.
The Knights defense got off to a good start with two straight sacks of Tiger quarterback Eli Lewis. The offense took one play to get the early lead on a 52 yard touchdown pass from Kaaleem Reiland to Ayden Howard. Nevis would vault ahead as Lewis completed a 48 yard pass to Joe Houchin and Lewis would keep the ball and head into the end zone on a one yard run. Ayomedi Ogundeji would break two tackles and score on a 32 yard run and the Tigers led 14-6 at the half.
It looked like Kingsland would come close to Nevis in the third quarter but Ayden Howard's second touchdown was called backed due to an aiding the runner penalty. But the Knights would shine on a five yard keeper run to the right side that cut the Tiger lead to two but the would lose the ball on downs after a 31 yard pass from Reiland to Howard.
Beau Wiersma, who led Kingsland with 297 yards in the semifinals against Fertile-Beltrami, ran for 162 yards.
Nevis ended their season with a record of 13-0. Kingsland concluded their season at 12-1.
STEWARTVILLE 43 ANNANDALE 13
The Stewartville Tigers made the most of their trip up Highway 52 as Carter Miller reached the end zone three times to lead them to a 43-13 rout of the Annandale Cardinals in the Class AAA championship game.
Both teams tallied in the first quarter. The Tigers struck first as Mr. Football candidate Ayden Helder fired a 17 yard pass to Miller. The Cardinals tied the game as Connor Lampi score on a one yard run. Stewartville regained the lead on a four yard left side touchdown run from Miller giving them a 14-7 halftime lead.
Miller would reach the end zone for the third time in the third quarter on a six yard run up the middle. The Tigers would put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter as Helder scored on a one yard keeper run and threw a 44 yard touchdown pass to Tegan Malone. Defense would also be the key for Stewartville as Jayce Klug recorded two interceptions. With the outcome decided, both teams emptied their benches and they would also factor into the equation. Tarin Conlin would score on a one yard run following a run of 37 yards for Stewartville and Gabe Westman hauled in a 17 yard pass from Michael Kovall for Annandale.
Miller led the Tigers with 150 rushing yards.
Stewartville finished the season with a 13-0 record and Annandale ended their season at 12-1.
CHANHASSEN 34, ST. THOMAS ACADEMY 31 (OT)
If you got tired of the Minnesota Gophers making one blockhead mistake after another against Wisconsin, you could have changed the channel to one of the best games in Prep Bowl history that had Kaden Bush catch the winning touchdown pass in overtime to lead the Chanhassen Storm to a 34-31 win over the St. Thomas Academy Cadets in the Class AAAAA championship game.
It was the first championship game to go into overtime since 2019 when Rocori beat the SMB Wolfpack to win the Class AAAA title.
Following a missed field goal by the Cadets Declan Wilson, the Storm had their first drive and it would take one play as Maxwell Woods ran like he was headed to the light rail station 76 yards to put Chanhassen ahead. Both teams reached the end zone in the second quarter as Savion Hart scored on a 12 yard run and Brayden Windschitl scored on a one yard keeper run following a 58 yard gain from the North Dakota State bound Woods. The Storm led at halftime 14-7.
It was Woods who made his second visit to the end one in the third quarter, scoring on a 10 yard run. Luke Dobbs caught a seven yard touchdown pass for St. Thomas Academy and the Storm led 21-14 at the end of the third quarter.
Hart would cause Cadets fan's hearts to beat faster in the fourth quarter when he ran the ball into the end zone from six yards to tie the game at 21. The Storm went back in front as Daxton Bush received the pitch from Windschitl, broke through two tackles and scored on a 62 yard run. St. Thomas Academy was not out of it as they would tie the game on Maximus Sims' eight yard pass to Chase Young to even the score at 28. Chanhassen rwould run out the clock and send the game into overtime.
Now to overtime and the Cadets would go first from the Storm 10 yard line. They would get a 26 yard field goal from Wilson to take a 31-28 lead. Could Chanhassen take home their first state title in their overtime drive? The answer would be yes. It would come down to fourth and goal at the St. Thomas Academy six yard line as Windschitl fired a high, short pass to Kaden Bush and he caught it to send the fans home to Carver County jubilant.
Woods would lead the Storm with 215 yards on 20 carries and Hart led the Cadets with 226 yards on 37 rushes.
Chanhassen ended their season at 13-0 and St. Thomas Academy finished with a record on 10-3.
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