Jonny Sorenson will admit he was nervous watching from the sideline Friday in New Hope. Cooper was lining up for a potential game-winning two-point conversion after scoring with 1:04 left against his St. Louis Park teammates.

But the Hawks’ Onte Burns was stuffed just short, meaning the senior quarterback’s 11-yard touchdown pass 30 seconds earlier to freshman McCabe Dvorak stood as the difference in St. Louis Park’s 13-12 victory in the Class 5A, Section 5 title game.

The win secured St. Louis Park’s first trip to the Class 5A state tournament.

“You can’t explain it,” Sorenson said. “This is a testament to these coaches and this program. We’re putting good things in place and it doesn’t matter what anyone else says. We’re a brotherhood.”

Sorenson’s touchdown capped off a 20-play drive that started with 11:01 left in the fourth quarter at its own 13-yard line.

That was enough to support a defense that limited Cooper to just one score. The Hawks were averaging 39.4 points a game, and had defeated the Orioles 40-17 on Sept. 8.

“We knew we were this team,” Sorenson said. “We knew we were coming back. We lost the second game of the season to Cooper. We kept the key card because we were coming back and we had unfinished business.”

A couple of inches made all of the difference Friday in New Hope, where St. Louis Park edged Cooper 13-12 to win the Class 5A, Section 5 title and advance to next week’s state quarterfinals.

Twice Cooper appeared on the way to score only to fumble into the end zone for a St. Louis Park touchback. Then, after Cooper (9-1) scored with 1:04 left, it tried for a two-point conversion to win the game. But Onte Burns was stopped just short as St. Louis Park booked its first ever trip to the state tournament.

The Orioles (7-3) opened the scoring on a 1-yard quarterback draw by Jonny Sorenson with three seconds left in the first quarter. The Hawks answered with a 37-yard touchdown pass from Cameron King to Adrian Adams, but they failed to convert the extra point with 2:06 left in the first half.

St. Louis Park scored again with 1:37 left in the game when Sorenson threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to McCabe Dvorak to cap a 20-play drive that spanned nearly 11 minutes.

Cooper responded when King and Pedro Amoussou connected on a 13-yard completion for a touchdown just over 30 seconds later, setting up the two-point attempt that failed.

Check back later for more on the game.