With several takeaways, disciplined play and an early onslaught of offense, the Tigers cruised to a 36-12 win over the Mahnomen/Waubun Thunderbirds at U.S. Bank Stadium to earn a return trip to the state championship game.

The Thunderbirds defeated the Tigers 38-0 in the state semifinals in 2018. Despite allowing a couple of late touchdowns, the Tigers were almost able to completely flip that 2018 score in the 2023 rematch.

Regardless of what happened five years ago, the Tigers’ main objective was getting past the Thunderbirds and getting back to the state title game this year after last year’s state championship game loss to Minneota.

But what may come as a surprise to few, the Tigers’ win Saturday was matched with a 63-6 win by Minneota over Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, setting up a state title rematch at 10 a.m. Friday at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Springfield’s Grant Kuehn takes a 2-point conversion catch into the end zone during Saturday morning’s Class A State Football Tournament Semifinals game with Mahnonmen/Waubun at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The Tigers took to the air early on Saturday as senior quarterback Jakob Nachreiner connected with Carter Olson for a 36-yard touchdown pass.

“This team, all year, hasn’t really seen a passing team like us,” Olson said. “So we kind of knew coming into this that we should be able to get our pass game going and it worked out really good for us.”

Nachreiner finished the game completing 12 of 23 passes for 209 yards, two TDs and an interception. Olson finished with seven catches for 136 yards and the score.

Another all-around weapon for the Tigers in Brayden Sturm played at receiver Saturday but was used sparingly on defense while still recovering from an injury. That opened things up for Olson to step up again in Sturm’s place on defense.

Olson ended up intercepting a pass and deflecting a pass away into the hands of teammate Lucas Milbrath for another interception.

“It’s been a battle between both offensive and defensive coaches,” Olson said. “I’ve always wanted to play defense, I’ve always told them that, but … [coach] Meyer just wants me fresh. But it’s obviously something that I’ve always wanted and a joy playing defense.”

Sam Pidde added three receptions for 39 yards also for the Tigers and helped lead the defense with eight tackles and an interception.

“I think going into that, we just had to be really strong playing defense, not being afraid of anything,” Pidde said. “Especially from where I was at safety to fill, just go get the running back right away. So, I think just going into that, we had to be very intense right from the get-go.”

James Filzen was in on 10 tackles also for Springfield, while Aiden Moriarty had eight tackles, five solo. Gavin Vanderwerf also forced a Mahonomen/Waubun fumble on its opening drive that Milbrath recovered and later recovered one of his own in the third.

“The defense really sparked the offense,” Springfield head coach Adam Meyer said. “When we’re getting some short fields from our defense, whether it’s from interceptions or fumbles, that puts us in really good positions to be aggressive.

“Looking at the film that we watched, we knew that they haven’t played a lot of spread teams like we are, and we thought that might give us some opportunities to get the ball down the field a little bit. We hit on some, we missed on some, but I think that’s important to take those shots down the field to loosen that secondary up, which eventually opened up some shorter passes and got our running game going a little bit.”

After Olson’s TD reception, Ashton Toll was next in the end zone for Springfield after a 17-yard run with 4:50 left in the first quarter. Toll finished the game with eight carries for 31 yards and two TDs.

Olson’s catch on a 2-point conversion attempt put Springfield up 14-0.

Sam Rummel also had 12 carries for 27 yards and a score for the Tigers.

Toll added another TD run in the second quarter to give the Tigers a 20-0 lead before Nachreiner connected with Sturm on a 5-yard TD toss into the end zone in the final minute of the half for a 28-0 lead after a 2-point conversion catch by Grant Kuehn.

Rummel’s 4-yard TD run and Pidde’s 2-point conversion catch gave Springfield a 36-0 lead with 7:21 left in the third quarter.

The Thunderbirds scored both of their TDs in the fourth quarter, one an 8-yard TD keeper by Blake McMullen and one a 4-yard TD run by Zachary Zima.

Another point in the game that kept Springfield coaches happy was the fact that the Tigers were penalized just three times in the game and no penalties came from holding.

A big part in that disciplined play came at the offensive line.

“It was a big focus this week on getting our hands inside, rather than trying to overpower our guys on the outside,” Tigers center Keith Parris said. “It’s just kind of more of a mental thing because you’ve got to be disciplined.”

Parris said he thought the Tigers’ blocking could have been better in the second half, the line didn’t allow a sack and was all-around successful.

“As the game went on, we weren’t producing as much as we were thinking we were going to produce, which made it a little difficult for us,” Parris said. “But, overall, I was proud of our line.”

The Tigers will now spend some time looking back at the footage from last year’s state title game and pair that with what they’ve seen from Minneota this year in preparation of Friday’s rematch.

Pidde is aware of how strong Minneota is, but he said the Tigers are hungry for payback and will have to show no fear Friday.

“We’re definitely hungry, especially what happened last year,” Pidde said. “We want revenge on them. So, coming into this game on Friday, we can’t be all weak and scared of them to hit or not gain yards or anything. We’re definitely coming into this knowing that we can hang with anybody and we know that we can beat anybody but only as long as we play to our best ability and come out strong like we did today.”