Eden Prairie and Holdingford, separate in so many ways, converge as champs

50 years in the making: One is a big-class team, the other much smaller, but parallels remain.

By Ron Haggstrom Star Tribune

October 21, 2022 — 12:10am

Year: 2014

"I'm still floating on air. It's an awesome feeling." — Holdingford's Nathan Brinker

Eden Prairie and Holdingford went about it a little differently but took similar paths — rally and deny a two-point conversion attempt — to championships.

Eden Prairie had to overcome a 14-point halftime deficit and then hold on for a 28-27 victory over Totino-Grace to win the Class 6A championship. It was Eden Prairie's fourth consecutive title.

Coach Mike Grant's squad scored 21 straight second-half points, the last of which came on a 75-yard run by Will Rains with 2 minutes, 46 seconds remaining, and gave the Eagles a 28-21 lead. He also scored on runs of 1 and 57 yards, finishing with 230 yards on 26 carries.

Totino-Grace answered a little more than a minute later on quarterback Lance Benick's 25-yard run. Following a timeout by both teams, Benick's two-point conversion pass was knocked away from his receiver's grasp by Eden Prairie's Matt Carson and fell incomplete.

"We just needed to make another play," Totino-Grace coach Jeff Ferguson said. "But our kids battled. … That's why Eden Prairie is the premier program in Minnesota and there's no close second."

In Class 2A, Holdingford senior quarterback Austin Gerads scrambled for a fourth-down touchdown from the 10-yard line with no time remaining in regulation to force overtime against BOLD.

In the second overtime, Gerads caught an 8-yard touchdown pass from Nathan Brinker and added the two-point conversion for an eight-point lead. BOLD answered with Ben Steffel's 7-yard scoring run, but the Huskers defense forced a fumble on the two-point conversion attempt and Holdingford prevailed 20-18. It was the first double-overtime Prep Bowl game since 1998.

Holdingford lost two of its first three games in 2014.

"It's definitely a Cinderella season," Brinker said. "We turned ourselves around."