New Ulm Cathedral slays another favored football team in the playoffs - Final score from the 'Dome: NUC 34, Minneota 33

New Ulm Cathedral, who had knocked #1-ranked Springfield out of the playoffs in the Section 2A championship on November 5, won its Class A state semi-final battle with Minneota 34-33 on Saturday at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

Minneota led 14-0 with 11:00 left in the first half, and with 4:39 left in the first half the score was 20-7 in favor of the Vikings.

At halftime: Minneota 20, NUC 14. The Greyhounds (12-1) earned a key interception with about 90 seconds to go in the second quarter.

In the fourth quarter, New Ulm Cathedral went for two to get the lead and held on with a stop in the final minute after a Minneota holding penalty set up 3rd & 11. Good game by both offenses and Minneota had a couple of penalties that hurt them and turned it over once at the end of the first half and had the late holding penalty that cost them.

Credit to New Ulm Cathedral for not giving up because they were down to the defending state champion by 14 points on at least 3 different occasions and they rattled off the last 14 points to win the game.

Minneota ends their season 11-2 overall, with a very talented crop of seniors who will be lost to graduation next spring.

Barnesville (13-0) won the other Class A semi-final game, beating a very tough Goodhue team 49-30.

• In a tough loss for Eden Valley-Watkins, the Eagles lost 12-6 to Triton in one of the two Class AA semi-finals.
  

It marks the 2nd straight year that EV-W has gone 12-1 and lost a close heartbreaker in the state semis. In 2009, the Eagles fell 21-20 in overtime to Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, who won the state title. Interestingly, both WEM and Triton hail from Section 2A.

The Eagles' touchdown came with 3:09 left in the game. Most of EV-W's 231 overall yardage was earned in the fourth quarter. They were limited to 69 yards rushing.

From what I heard, the Triton defense controlled the game from beginning to end. That's crazy, considering what all B-B-E and CMC football followers know about the Eagles.

Triton earned 3 picks in the game, the last coming on the final play, when the Eagles were on the Triton 49 yard line hoping to score and tie it up. EV-W had only one interception all season coming into the state semi-final game.