Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Springfield’s Isaac Fink catches a touchdown pass at Sticker Field in Springfield in the first quarter against Tracy-Milroy-Balaton on Friday.

SPRINGFIELD — With a solid aerial attack and some hard-nosed defense when it mattered most, the Springfield football team picked up its third win in a row after a 26-16 Southwest District, East Subdistrict victory over Tracy-Milroy-Balaton on Friday at Sticker Field.

Decker Scheffler threw for 292 yards on 23 completions for Springfield (3-2, 3-1), with 13 of those completions ending up in the hands of Isaac Fink for 189 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Scheffler also ran in a touchdown.

“What’s impressive about these guys is that when they were 0-2, they worked as hard as when they were 2-2,” Springfield head coach Bob Fink said. “These kids are mentally tough and we saw that throughout this game with making big third-down conversions when we needed them.”

The Tigers opened the game with a 4:05 drive that ended with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Fink and an extra point kick to put them up 7-0.

After getting the ball back on the Panthers’ 37-yard line after a four-play TMB turnover on downs, the Tigers got a 35-yard TD run by Owen Bertram. The extra point was no good and the Tigers led 13-0 with 5:22 left to play in the first quarter.

Bertram was forced out of the game after an injury on the following Springfield possession.

Fink also got involved on the defensive side in the second quarter, picking off a pass and taking it to the Tigers’ 40-yard line. After driving into TMB territory, though, a Scheffler pass was intercepted by Rylan Fogelson to end the Springfield scoring threat.

The Tigers led 13-0 at the half.

TMB started the third quarter out with a drive that led to a 21-yard TD run by Tyler Vandendriessche. The 2-point conversion was good to make the score 13-8.

After the Tigers struggled with back-to-back possessions ending in three and outs, the Panthers pounced back for a 16-13 lead early in the fourth quarter after a 24-yard TD keeper by Sawyer Otto and a 2-point conversion.

The Tigers answered that score back, though, with a 60-yard pass up the middle from Scheffler to Fink for a 19-16 lead with 9:09 left to play. With TMB marching back downfield, a fumble recovery gave the Tigers the ball back at their own 46, which they made sure to capitalize on.

After Fink made a couple of nice grabs near the sideline, a 12-yard TD keeper by Scheffler and an extra point kick put the Tigers up 26-16. The Springfield defense then forced a TMB turnover on downs, which led to the Panthers using their timeouts in order to attempt to get the ball back late.

That plan didn’t end well for the Panthers. A 50-yard Scheffler deep pass that was hauled in by Fink on 3rd-and-16 allowed Scheffler to kneel out the clock.

Mason Rummel led the Tigers’ defense with 13 tackles, while Ivan Hovland had 12 tackles.

Rummel also ran for 47 yards.

“Tracy did a real nice job making adjustments from the second quarter on, and we had a difficult time stopping them,” coach Fink said. “It was key that we got that turnover (fumble recovery) and right after that turnover, we hit it big right away.”

Springfield is at Minneota for a 7 p.m. showdown on Friday.