Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Springfield’s Kadin Johnson (33) makes a move to get by Russell-Tyler-Ruthton defender Darrick Baartman (1) on Saturday afternoon in a Section 3A playoff game in Springfield at RIverside Park. Johnson scored on the play by diving towards the pylon.

SPRINGFIELD — After forcing five turnovers and rushing for 302 total yards on Saturday afternoon in a 42-6 Section 3A playoff win over Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, the Springfield football team is now just a win away from making back-to-back state tournament appearances.

With the win, the No. 1-seeded Tigers will battle No. 2-seeded Martin County West at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Southwest Minnesota State University for the right to represent Section 3 in the Class A state football tournament.

The Tigers were led by Kadin Johnson’s 179 yards rushing and a touchdown on 11 carries, while Mason Rummel had 13 carries for 116 yards and four touchdowns. Springfield also got 73 yards passing and a touchdown from senior quarterback Decker Scheffler.

Leading Springfield’s dominant defense was Jordan Toll, who had two interceptions. Nolan Hovland and Ivan Hovland also each had an interception for the Tigers, while Johnson forced a fumble that was recovered by Rummel. The Tigers’ defense also held RTR to just 18 yards rushing on 24 carries.

Rummel got the Tigers on the board first late in the first quarter on a 23-yard TD run. The Tigers led 7-0 after an extra-point kick from Mark Peschges.

While Peschges missed an early field goal attempt in the first quarter on the Tigers’ opening drive, he ended up making all six extra point attempts in the game.

The Knights got on the board with 9:04 left in the half after Payton Hess threw to Jonah Christensen for a 78-yard catch and run TD down the right sideline to trail 7-6. The extra point was no good.

After that, it was all Springfield.

Johnson put the Tigers up 13-6 after a 21-yard TD run with 7:50 left in the opening half before Rummel later walked into the end zone with ease on a late 2-yard TD run for a 21-6 Springfield lead at the break.

After the Knights fumbled the snap on fourth down when trying to punt on their first drive of the second half, the Tigers got the ball in the red zone on the RTR 13-yard line. A few plays later, Rummel rushed to the outside for a 5-yard TD to put the Tigers up 28-6 after the extra point with 8:36 left in the third quarter.

Later in the quarter, after Toll halted a long RTR drive by intercepting a pass and taking it to the Springfield 17-yard line, Johnson had his biggest run all day. On the very first play of the next Springfield drive, Johnson made a cut to the left sideline and carried the ball 78 yards before being brought down at the Knights’ 5-yard line.

While he had to deal with some razzing from his teammates for being brought down short of the end zone after the big run, Johnson’s run set up Rummel’s final touchdown of the day, a 2-yard TD run with 1:29 left in the third.

“At first, it was kind of like, I’d go to the hole and I’d have tunnel vision on that hole and I’d kind of get maybe 3-4 yards,” Johnson said. “But then after that, after the coaches told me that there’s cutback lanes opening up, I hit those cutback lanes and it was wide open field from there, just a foot race.”

The Tigers capped off their scoring barrage midway through the fourth quarter when Mason Leonard caught a 13-yard pass from Scheffler and took it into the end zone.

The Tigers are still unbeaten at 9-0 and have outscored their opponents 346-48 this season, but they can’t afford to overlook MCW on Friday. Johnson said that the Tigers will need to keep doing what they’re doing on defense and continue to block well on offense in order to take down the Mavericks.

“On defense, we have the wall and it’s working perfectly, freeing up everybody in the back,” Johnson said. “And we need to just keep blocking up front, that’s where the game’s won right there.”