Blooming Prairie snares home opener

Two teams with a winning history battled the heat and strong winds in the season opener, and the Awesome Blossoms finally prevailed 8-6.  The game on the Blooming field featured an earlier start with the threat of bad weather looming later in the day, but the wind and the heat probably played a part in the outcome, as well.
It was a fairly typical opening day contest, with mistakes in the form of fumbles, intercepted passes and penalties stopping at least two drives for either team.   That accounted for the lack of scoring, as the two teams were held to one touchdown each. The defense for both sides also dictated the flow of the game between two evenly matched teams struggling to capture an early season advantage. 
As one of the game’s stars, Jon Hatch, commented, “The wind really made it hard to get much of anything going, but we hung together and did just enough to grab the win.  We are two pretty evenly matched teams coming off very successful seasons, but it was a real struggle today.”
After a scoreless quarter and a half that featured three punts from the Trojans and two punts and an intercepted pass from sophomore quarterback Lucas Noble, the locals took over on the RP 48 and marched in for a touchdown, Noble scrambled for 24 yards in one big play and three short rushes moved the ball to the ten.  Anthony Nelson took a pass in the flat and fought his way down the sidelines and into the end zone. Jon Hatch’s dive scored the two extra points, and BP led 8-0, with 3:15 left in the half.
 The third quarter mirrored the first half, as neither team could conquer the wind or the opposition.  Finally, near the end of the quarter RP got a drive started from their own 40-yard line.  On fourth down from the BP 43, the Trojans took a gamble. Quarterback Landon Goree connected with Cameron Johnson on the BP three, and RP scored from there at the 9:24 mark.  The try for the two-point conversion fell short, and time would run put on the Trojans.
The game moved into a pressure situation, after a Blossom drive was halted by a holding penalty and a Noble fumble with less than two minutes left.  However, Kevin Eischens intercepted a Goree desperation pass with 1:15 left to stop the visitors’ last effort and preserve the victory.
Defenses dominated the game in this season opener, but the Blossoms did manage 14 first downs to just eight for RP.  BP wound up with five more rushing yards, 116-111, and Noble connected on nine of 18 passes for 88 yards to just 43 yards for the visitors, Noble rushed 17 times for 76 yards, and Nelson caught 45 passes for 52 yards.  Blooming Prairie lost the ball twice on three fumbles and had two pass interceptions.
As Anthony Nelson said in summary, “It wasn’t a pretty game, but the wind had a lot to do with that.  We started an inexperienced quarterback in sophomore Noble, but I thought he played well overall.  It is surely nice to get that first win, and we stuck together to earn it.”
Defensively, the boys played a very tough game.  Nelson led the team with 11 tackles, but Riley Olson had seven and Grundmeier added six.  It was truly a team effort, and BP heads to old conference rival Bethlehem Academy next Friday, Sept. 28, on a high note.