Blossoms blank Panthers in opener

Published 12:17 am Saturday, September 1, 2012

Blooming Prairie's Cole Sunde passes through two New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva players during the second quarter on Friday. -- Brandi Hagen/Albert Lea Tribune

BLOOMING PRAIRIE — The Awesome Blossoms were in midseason form as they opened their season by rolling New Richland-HEG 35-0 in BP Friday.

The BP defense held NRHEG (0-1 overall) to 223 yards of offense and sophomore quarterback John Rumpza threw four touchdowns in the first half for the Blossoms (1-0 overall).

“It went a little better than planned,” BP head coach Chad Gimbel said. “It was good to see our kids execute like that in the first game.”

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Rumpza, who was making his first start at quarterback, hit Michael Thomas for two scores of more than 20 yards and he also connected with Weston Fiebiger and Cole Sunde for touchdowns.

Rumpza completed 22 of his 30 passes and threw for 332 yards.

“You just don’t know how a young kid will respond,” Gimbel said. “He had a couple of overthrows early and then he really found his comfort zone.”

SCORING SUMMARY

NRHEG 0 0 0 0 — 0

BP 14 14 7 0 — 35

First quarter

(BP) Michael Thomas 21 pass from John Rumpza (Brett Wacek kick) 7:26

(BP) Weston Fiebiger 17 pass from Rumpza (Wacek kick) 2:18

Second quarter

(BP) Cole Sunde 9 pass from Rumpza (Wacek kick) 6:41

(BP) Thomas 39 pass from Rumpza (Wacek kick) 1:27

Third quarter

(BP) Scott Romeo 3 run (Wacek kick) 8:40

BP passing: John Rumpza, 22-for-30, 332, 4 TD

BP receiving: Weston Fiebiger, 6-for-141, TD; Michael Thomas, 9-for-113, 2 TD; Cole Sunde, 7-for-136, TD

BP rushing: Romeo, 9-for-42, TD; Sunde, 6-for-38