Response is the word St. Thomas Academy's football program used all season to rally when adversity struck.

And adversity was everywhere to start Friday's Class 5A semifinal against Alexandria at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Cardinals put the Cadets in a three-score hole. Yet a response followed the third touchdown and began to change the game's complexion.

Paddy Emerson's block of an Alexandria extra point attempt didn't seem like much of a beachhead from which to mount a counterattack, but the Cadets were sparked by something finally going right.

From there, St. Thomas Academy fought back — all the way to a stirring 42-30 comeback victory and a spot in next Saturday's Prep Bowl championship game.

A more obvious boost came from a 48-yard Maximus Sims touchdown pass to Luke Dobbs. Then Savion Hart got loose for an 86-yard dash to set up his own short touchdown run, and the Alexandria lead shrank to 23-15. But the Cardinals remained confident.

"At that point, we'd only really been beaten by two big plays," senior linebacker Jacob Lanoux said. "We knew we had to shake it off, go into the second half and make things right."

Instead, St. Thomas Academy (10-2) kept rolling. A tipped ball produced an interception, a short field and a Hart rushing touchdown. The score was tied 23-23, but the teams were moving in opposite directions.

"At halftime, I told our defense, 'One turnover, and we win this game,' " Sims said. "Once they got that pick, the offense said, 'This is our game. We're going to finish this game the way we want to finish it. And we're not going to stop.' "

Alexandria scored the game's first 23 points. St. Thomas Academy responded with the next 42. Sims threw for 245 yards and three touchdowns while Hart added 227 rushing yards and three scores.

"Once our offense gets going, we're very hard to stop," Sims said.

Quarterback Chase Thompson finished with 330 passing yards and two touchdowns. But Alexandria (11-1) suffered its first loss of the year, and it spoiled the program's first U.S. Bank Stadium appearance.

"We've had close games all year, but we've always come out victorious," Cardinals senior safety Evan Moore said. "It just hurts."