Fillmore Central was the top-ranked team by QRF in Class A coming into the game, while Springfield was the sixth-ranked team.

The 34 total points scored is fewer than either team’s average points scored on the season, as Fillmore Central was averaging 35.6 points per game and Springfield was averaging 41.4. However, it was the defense that came up big for the Tigers in this game.

“They’re an incredibly strong team, Fillmore Central is,” Springfield head coach Adam Meyer said. “Offense and defense. At this level it takes a lot of different people to win games, you have to win games in a lot of different ways, and I was just incredibly proud of the resilience our guys showed throughout the game. We had some guys go down, they made some big plays, but we continued to have guys step up in big moments and make stops on defense, and we scored just enough points to win.”

The Tigers will next take on Mahnomen/Waubun in the state semifinals at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Springfield's Carter Olson seals the game with an interception in the end zone in front of teammate Sam Pidde (18) during a Class A Football State Tournament game against Fillmore Central Friday at Jordan High School.

Carter Olson was the star of the game for Springfield, totaling 69 yards and two touchdowns receiving while coming away with two interceptions defensively.

“It’s an awesome experience,” Olson said. “We were hard on ourselves in the first half, they made some big plays. I was just encouraging our team because I knew this game wasn’t over. It was an awesome experience for us and for myself.”

Olson usually is a full-time wideout for the team, but was pushed into more duty when defensive back Brayden Sturm left the game with an ankle injury in the third quarter, and stepped up with two key turnovers.

“He’s been doing this for three years now,” Meyer said. “He’s been our leading receiver for the two seasons before this one. Defensively we’ve been mixing him in throughout the season, and tonight with Brayden going down, he got some more reps there.

“He changed the game offensively, started us out with the one-handed touchdown catch in the first quarter, then defensively with two interceptions in the second half — one to seal it, one with a big return that led to a scoring opportunity. And you can’t forget the 2-point conversion that iced things for us. He was everywhere for us. Played an extremely good game.”

Jakob Nachreiner had 125 yards passing to go with his two touchdowns to Olson, while Ashton Toll led the Tigers on the ground with 58 yards and a score. Toll also led the team defensively with 10 tackles, while Gavin Vanderwerf, James Filzen and Lucas Milbrath all had sacks. Sam Pidde added a fumble recovery for the Tigers.

Olson’s one-handed snag to open the scoring occurred early in the first quarter with 9:42 to go in the period to go up 8-0 after a 2-point conversion from Nachreiner to Sturm. Neither team managed a score, with a Pidde fumble recovery mixing into a series of punts by both teams, until Fillmore Central struck back with a touchdown with 5:20 left in the second quarter. A three-and-out by the Tigers set up the Falcons with another scoring opportunity that they capitalized on with a 40-yard connection from quarterback Chase Christianson to wideout Greg Kennedy to take a 12-8 lead.

A Springfield interception took the game to halftime.

Springfield came out of the half with a eight-play, 59-yard touchdown drive that ended in a 15-yard TD pass to Olson. This was followed by six consecutive punts where the teams had a total of four first downs as neither team was willing to give an inch.

On the eighth drive of the second half, a deep pass from Christianson, who had briefly exited the game and was dealing with an injury that caused his passes to spray wildly on occasion, was intercepted by Olson, who returned the ball 70 yards to the Falcons 7-yard line.

While Nachreiner’s fourth-down scramble fell short of the goal line for the Tigers, a Falcons three-and-out gave Springfield the ball back at the Falcons 32, and the Tigers’ run game was able to drain the clock to under a minute before Toll punched the ball in to go up 20-12. Disaster nearly struck when the extra point snap escaped the holder’s hands, but Olson picked up the ball and ran it in for the 2 points, putting the Tigers up two scores. Unsurprisingly, it was Olson who made the final play of the game, intercepting an end zone shot to seal the game.

Olson said the win showed that Springfield was able to beat any team in any way if the team played to its fullest

“It’s nice to win this game against Fillmore [Central] because they’re a very solid and physical team,” he said. “It’s just a nice win for us and more experience overall.”