Staff photo by Fritz Busch Springfield’s Ashtin Johnson carries the ball during a Southwest District football game with Sleepy Eye on Friday night in Sleepy Eye.

Host MCW

Thursday

SLEEPY EYE — The Springfield Tigers broke open a 6-0 game with two second-half touchdowns through the air in a 22-0 win over the Sleepy Eye Indians Friday night in a Southwest District football game.

Springfield quarterback Jakob Nachreiner passed for 283 yards in the game, throwing touchdowns of 19 and 17 yards to Brayden Sturm and a 17-yard pass to Ashton Toll. Ashtin Johnson caught two 2-point conversion passes and rushed for 54 yards.

“We had flashes offensively, running and passing. We just need to be more consistent,” said Springfield head coach Adam Meyer. “That gives us something to work on in practice. We got a couple dings, but nobody is seriously hurt.”

Toll finished with 100 receiving yards in the game, while Carter Olson had 68 receiving yards and MaCoy Krick had 51 receiving yards. Sam Pidde also forced a fumble for Springfield, while Sturm had a fumble recovery, Toll had 13 tackles and Sam Rummel had nine tackles.

The 4-2 Tigers host Martin County West on Thursday. They had 25 first downs, 299 total yards and 71 penalty yards in the game.

“They’re ranked and like to play physical football,” Meyer said. “I’m looking forward to that one.”

Sleepy Eye head coach Joe Hoffmann wasn’t too disappointed after the game.

“We played tough and aggressive,” Hoffmann said. “The guys battled. That’s what you want to see. It came down to big plays and turnovers. They (Springfield) made some big pass plays. We had a couple mental mistakes and they made us pay for it. We had opportunities to make big plays, getting interceptions. We’ve just got to find a way to make plays.”

Sleepy Eye linebacker Arian Saenz had 12 tackles and a sack. Linebacker Gaige Bauer had a sack and linebacker Cody Schultz and defensive end Jacob Price each had half a sack.

Indians quarterback Caden Evers passed for 64 yards. Receiver Austin Uecker had 43 receiving yards.

The 1-5 Indians had 99 yards total offense, 15 first downs and 64 penalty yards. They play at Tracy Friday and close the regular season the next week at St. James. Coach Hoffmann said Tracy-Milroy-Balaton and St. James have some good-sized players and should be challenging opponents.

(Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com).