Year: 1985
The Star Tribune is celebrating 50 years of high school football state tournaments one day at a time for 50 days.
"You can't believe how sweet this is." — Burnsville coach Dick Hanson, about his team's victory over Apple Valley in Class AA
Brad Biehn is small at 145 pounds, but he came up big in a game-winning situation.
Biehn returned a punt 74 yards for a touchdown with 53 seconds remaining, giving New Prague a 16-12 victory over Mora for the Class A championship in 1985. He broke to his right after fielding the punt and went down the sideline untouched.
"I got a nice wall of blockers down the sideline. I don't know how many blocks I got because I couldn't count 'em while I was running," Biehn said. "I wasn't sure I could break it when I first caught the ball. Then, when I turned the corner and saw nobody in front of me, I was determined I was going all the way."
In Class AA, memories of Prep Bowl III, in which mistakes led to a three-point loss to Stillwater, had haunted Burnsville players for a year. This time, Burnsville made the big plays behind Matt Larson's 250 yards passing and two touchdowns to beat Apple Valley 27-21. Larson also ran for an 11-yard touchdown.
"You can't believe how sweet this is," Burnsville coach Dick Hanson said. "To come that close last year and then to come back and win it 14 games later."
Wide receiver Rich Ingersoll, who had six catches for 91 yards and a touchdown, added: "We had that one last year and let it slip away. It was our own fault. We weren't going to be denied this time."
