Blooming Prairie’s unbeaten streak comes to an end at state

Published 4:42 pm Monday, November 19, 2018

MINNEAPOLIS — The Blooming Prairie football team had its unbeaten streak come to an end when it was knocked off by BOLD by a score of 37-7 in the Minnesota Class A State Tournament semifinals in U.S. Bank Stadium Saturday.

The Blossoms had two early chances in BOLD’s red zone, but they weren’t able to convert those opportunities into scores. BP pulled to within 10-7 on a 21-yard touchdown grab by Payton Simon early in the second half, but BOLD dominated the rest of the way.

Blooming Prairie, which was playing in its third state semifinal and fourth state tournament in the last decade, had just a handful of seniors on the team this season. The junior class now has motivation for next year.

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“Practice was fun every single day and the leadership was great,” BP head coach Chad Gimbel said. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years and the number one thing it takes is chemistry. That’s what these guys had this year and as we go further into it, I look at the juniors coming up and they’ve learned from some of the best. They have a great core group.”

Blooming Prairie senior Trent Swenson said he’ll always cherish what he did on the field with BP.

“The last couple of years have been great and they’ve given me some of the best memories I could ask for,” Swenson said.

For more on Saturday’s game:  State Tournament: BP stumbles in semifinal loss to BOLD