Springfield’s Carter Olson (22) takes a reception and races by a Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg defender on Friday night during a Class A State Football Tournament quarterfinals game at Crown College in St. Bonifacius.

ST. BONIFACIUS — Scoring on its first drive of the game Friday night, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg looked to have the early momentum in the Class A State Football Tournament quarterfinals against Springfield at Crown College.

But while the Tigers trailed early, they didn’t trail for long as they rattled off four consecutive touchdowns on the way to a 28-6 victory.

The win moves the Tigers on to a state semifinals meeting with Deer River at 9 a.m. next Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

The game started with a temperature of 27 degrees and a light snowfall, but that didn’t slow the Saints down as they opened up with a 14-play, 70-yard drive that ended on an 11-yard touchdown run by Hunter Kallstrom. KMS held a 6-0 lead after a fumbled snap on the PAT was picked up and ran short of the goal line.

While that drive ended in points, it took more than eight minutes and 14 plays for KMS to grind the ball into the end zone, giving the Springfield defense some extra confidence.

“I think our coaching staff does a great job at preparing us,” Tigers linebacker Sam Rummel said. “The first drive on defense, that wasn’t our football. Then we picked it up from there and I thought we played a great game the rest of the way from there.”

Springfield saw its first drive go 12 plays and end in an interception and return to the Springfield 23-yard line by Malaki Lee to end the first quarter. The Tigers’ defense forced a three-and-out on the next KMS drive, however, and the KMS punt settled at the Springfield 48-yard-line.

It didn’t take the Tigers long to heat up after that, as a two-play drive ended in a 33-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass from quarterback Jakob Nachreiner to MaCoy Krick down the left sideline. That TD was set up with a 19-yard run by Ashtin Johnson, who finished the game with 133 yards rushing.

A PAT by Johnson put the Tigers up 7-6 with 10:07 left to play in the half.

“When our defense can get a stop like that and we come on the field fully refreshed for a short drive, it just makes everything a lot easier,” Nachreiner said.

The Tigers got the ball into the red zone twice after that, but both times ended in KMS takeaways.

The first KMS takeaway came on a fumble recovery by Kallstrom at the KMS 15. The second takeaway came as time expired in the first half after a Nachreiner lob from the KMS 15 to the end zone was picked off by Isaac Rudningen.

Before that interception, however, the Springfield offense built some confidence as Nachreiner completed four passes on the drive.

Sam Pidde recovered a KMS fumble late in the third quarter and the Tigers capitalized on that takeaway moments later on a 40-yard TD run by Johnson with 36 seconds left in the third. Johnson’s PAT gave the Tigers a 14-6 lead.

After forcing another KMS punt, the Tigers got a 76-yard TD pass to Carter Olson down the middle of the field for a 20-6 lead with 10:53 left to play.

An 11-yard TD reception in the end zone by Ashton Toll with 4:56 left in the game capped off the scoring.

Despite a couple of early turnovers, Nachreiner recovered nicely to help the Tigers extend their season, finishing the game with 286 yards through the air.

“We knew that we would eventually click, but we went in [to the second half] with a 0-0 mindset,” Nachreiner said. “We just got to make plays and stop them on D.”

Olson led Springfield’s wideouts with 11 receptions for 190 yards.

Springfield’s defense was led by Toll’s 10 tackles, a sack by Mitchell Streich and interceptions from Krick and Brayden Sturm.

Now the Tigers hope to keep the dream going next Saturday as they move on to U.S. Bank Stadium.

“It’s been a dream since Day 1,” Nachreiner said. “We do jumping jacks during warmups and we always end it on, ‘Bank,’ on 13 because it takes 13 games to get to the Bank. And just finally making it there, it’s surreal.”

Rummel believes the Tigers can make more noise next Saturday.

“The progress our team has made has been outstanding,” Rummel said. “From the first two games to now, it’s a new team and I don’t think anyone is ready for it.”