Class AA Prep Bowl Championship: Eden Valley-Watkins 24, Barnesville 6

In the 2022 football state tournament, Eden Valley-Watkins lost in the Class AA semifinals to Chatfield, the eventual Class AA champion. A year later, the Eagles passed that benchmark, and once in the Prep Bowl Championship game, they vowed to continue climbing.

Eden Valley-Watkins completed an undefeated season with a final display of dominance while posting a 24-6 victory over Barnesville in the Class AA championship game on Friday, Nov. 24 at U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis. Senior quarterback Noah Geislinger ran for a touchdown and threw for two others in an 18-point outburst that spanned the final minutes of the third quarter and into the fourth in sending the Eagles (13-0) to their second Class AA championship since 2005. In two other Prep Bowl appearances, Eden Valley-Watkins was the Class AA runner-up in 2004 and again in 2016.

Geislinger completed 7 of 13 passes for 111 yards and the three touchdowns. His longest completion was a 55-yard strike to junior wide receiver Wyatt Moehrle. The scoring connection gave the Eagles an 18-6 lead with 2:06 remaining in the third quarter and it came just more than two minutes after Geislinger had given Eden Valley-Watkins the lead for good on a 36-yard scoring run.

Geislinger’s scoring run was timely in that it squelched the momentum that Barnesville (12-1) had built in tying the score on a 6-yard run by junior running back Gannon Bolgrean with 6:32 left in the third quarter. Bolgrean finished with 145 yards and averaged 7.2 yards per carry.

In addition to intercepting four passes, Eden Valley-Watkins also recorded four sacks. Senior defensive back Nolan Haag had three of the interceptions to tie a Prep Bowl record shared by seven others. Moehrle and senior defensive back Parker Schultz had 11 tackles each for the Eagles.