Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm quarterback Ayden Jensen looks for an open receiver in the rain at New Ulm High School on Tuesday night during a Section 2AAAA football playoff game against St. Peter.

NEW ULM — James Osborne’s 2-yard touchdown run with just over four minutes left in the game gave New Ulm a 16-15 lead and an Ethan Lieb recovery of a St. Peter fumble with 32 seconds remaining sealed the deal as New Ulm topped St. Peter 16-15 Tuesday night in a Section 2AAAA playoff game at New Ulm High School.

Osborne also had a 24-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ayden Jensen and Lieb had a 27-yard field goal, both coming in the first half.

Kaden Guida caught a 52 yard touchdown pass from Payton Odland with Sam Moelter later catching a 42-yard strike from Odland.

New Ulm, now 6-3, travels to top-ranked Hutchinson Saturday at 3 p.m

“I am just really excited for our kids,” New Ulm coach Derek Lieser said as the Eagles won their first playoff game since 2003. “Excited that we get to come back to work for a couple more days and get ready for a very tough opponent.”

Jensen said that the team’s big first half and defense were key to the win.

“St. Peter is a good opponent — we beat them a couple of weeks ago [14-13 on Oct. 6],” Jensen said. “But we came out strong — put 10 points on the board [in the first half] and our defense played good.”

And it was Jensen and the Eagles who grabbed a 10-0 halftime lead over the Saints.

New Ulm opened the game with a 14-play drive that started om their own 15-yard line and marched to the St. Peter 10-yard line. Two pass completions of 23 and 28 yards from Jensen to Osborne moved the ball to the Saints 10-yard line where it stalled.

But Ethan Lieb kicked a 27-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

The Eagles made it 10-0 midway through the second quarter going 70 yards in eight plays and culminating on a 24-yard scoring pass from Jensen to Osborne at the 6:40 mark.

It would be a lead that New Ulm carried into halftime after a dominating first half.

The Eagles ran 37 offensive plays compared to 21 for the Saints.

But the second half saw a 180-degree turn in favor of the Saints.

St. Peter took the opening drive of the second half and — in three plays — covered 83 yards with a 52-yard pass from Odland to Guida.

The Saints defense cut the lead to 10-9 on a safety before grabbing their first lead of the game late in the third quarter on an Odland scoring pass to Moelter for a15-10 lead.

“They came out fired up after halftime,” Jensen said about the Saints. “We weren’t ready to go. We came out to play in the first half but in the second half they did.”

Down 15-10 with their season on the line, the Eagles pieced together their biggest scoring drive of the season.

Starting from their own 38-yard line to open the fourth quarter, New Ulm and Jensen got to work.

Jensen connected with tight end Colton Benson for 7 yards and pass completions of 8, 9 and 6 yards to Zach Hubbard before Osborne got into the end zone for a 16-15 lead.

“We did just enough things right to where we gave ourselves a chance to win,” Lieser said.

New Ulm’s defense then sealed the win when Lieb pounded on a fumble.

“Sam Ibberson had the forced fumble — he got his helmet on the football — which is great football IQ to get his helmet on the ball to kind of save our season,” said Lieser.