Bethlehem Academy Football Powers to State Tournament

The Faribault Bethlehem Academy Cardinals forced four turnovers and scored three times in the first half en route to a 25-8 win over the New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds on Saturday night.

The result is a meeting in the quarterfinal round of the state tournament against the Goodhue Wildcats on Friday in Rochester.

The Greyhounds won the toss and deferred, with the Cardinals taking the football to start the game. They motored right down the field but ended up turning the ball over with a fumble recovered at the Cathedral 26-yard line. New Ulm Cathedral then showed off their speed with a couple of long runs on their way to a Bryan Kokesch touchdown. After an offside penalty against the Cardinal defense, Kokesch also ran for a two-point conversion and the Greyhounds led 8-0. The score came with 6:54 left in first quarter.

Bethlehem Academy responded with a 79-yard drive ending in a five-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Ted Brown to senior receiver Kyle Ell. They missed a two-point run attempt and the score was 8-6 New Ulm Cathedral. Time was 1:13 to go in first quarter.

The Cardinal defense stiffened and so did New Ulm Cathedral's for a series before Bethlehem Academy had New Ulm Cathedral pinned deep in their own territory and they were forced to punt giving the Cardinals a start at the 46 of Cathedral.

Bethlehem Academy powered their way to the go-ahead score with a three-yard Peyton Glenzinski touchdown ending the drive. They missed another attempt for a two-point conversion and led 12-8 with 6:11 to go until the Faribault Foods halftime report.

After stuffing the New Ulm Cathedral attack again, the Cardinals had their last score of the first half with 14.7 seconds to go. Senior Glenzinski dove over from a yard out and the extra point kick was missed.

Score at halftime: Bethlehem Academy 18, New Ulm Cathedral 8.

I"m sure the Greyhounds went into the half thinking they were in pretty good shape thanks to the missed extra points, because a touchdown and another two-point conversion by Cathedral on their opening drive of the second half would bring them to within two points of the Cardinals.

New Ulm Cathedral got a tremendous kickoff return to start the second half and set up their first offensive series at the Bethlehem Academy 48.

But the Cardinals continued their ability to bottle up the speedy backs for Cathedral. They appeared to me to widen their defense a bit and put some faster guys on the edge and it worked because there were no more long runs.

Bethlehem Academy received a punt and started their next drive at the 12-yard line and then it became turnover city for the Greyhounds.

On their next four possessions they turned it over. The key defensive play in the game I thought was a very athletic interception by Brendan Trump. The junior read the quarterback's eyes beautifully and timed his jump to snatch the ball out of the air.

Bethlehem Academy was forced to punt during their next offensive series with New Ulm Cathedral starting at their 29-yard line.

Senior Beau Reuvers recovered a fumble at the Cathedral 21-yard line and Bethlehem Academy put the exclamation point on the victory with a two-yard touchdown by Glenzinski with 3:29 to go in the third quarter. Sophomore Anthony Langfeldt booted the extra point to make it 25-8.

The Cardinals defense forced two more turnovers: Another interception by Trump and a fumble recovery for senior Sam Clark.

The final score: Bethlehem Academy 25, New Ulm Cathedral 8. The Cardinals are the Section 2 Class A champions.

The 10-1 Cardinals will play the 8-3 Goodhue Wildcats at RCTC Stadium at 5PM Friday, and the game will be broadcast on KDHL 920 AM and through the free RadioPup app on your favorite mobile device.

Goodhue blanked Fillmore Central 29-0 earlier in the day at Rochester Mayo to capture the Section 1 Class A Championship.

I saw the Wildcats in their season-opening 27-7 win over Kenyon-Wanamingo (the only team to defeat Bethlehem Academy so far 17-14), and their offensive line is very good. They have good balance offensively and swarm to the football on defense. Their losses during the regular season were 12-9 to Fillmore Central, 21-14 to Lewiston-Altura and 24-21 to Rushford-Peterson.

Our Faribault State Farm Insurance Agents Jason Krohn and Tony Langerud players of the game were a tough pick because the Cardinals played so well on both sides of the ball.

I chose Peyton Glenzinski and the offensive line of sophomores Graham Ellendson, Luke Donkers and Alex Bongers, and seniors Isaac Van Thomme and Sam Clark for the offensive State Farm players and seniors Brenden Trump, Beau Reuvers and Cooper Brooks for the defensive State Farm players of the game.

By the way, I was very disappointed the concession stand in New Ulm didn't have a brat with sauerkraut. Seems like a natural doesn't it?