Staff photo by Ari Selvey Springfield’s Lucas Milbrath (3) goes up to catch a touchdown pass over Sleepy Eye United’s Nolan Weicherding (14) during a South District, West-South Subdistrict football game at Riverside Park in Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield remained undefeated on the season with a 34-6 win over Sleepy Eye United in a South District, West-South Subdistrict football game Friday.

Meyer, who saw his Tigers move to 5-0 to start the year, said his players are starting to own their roles.

“The kids have just taken onto the schemes on both sides of the ball really well,” Springfield head coach Adam Meyer said. “They’re owning their roles, and we have some great leaders in our senior class, junior class, and even some sophomores stepping into those leadership roles. They really understand getting better every week, and I think that’s something we’ve done, which is a credit to our kids and our coaching staff. Not letting up and not being satisfied with where we are right now.”

Springfield saw most of its success on the ground, with the Tigers racking up 170 yards of rushing offense in total. Leading the charge was Gavin Vanderwerf, who chewed up 142 yards on the ground with two touchdowns.

“Our linemen have gotten better each week since the year began,” Meyer said. “We had some new faces up there to begin the season. Those guys are really getting comfortable. Too many penalties for us, something we have to fix going forward, but I’m very happy with our linemen. Then between Aiden [Moriarty] and Gavin lead blocking for each other, we have a lot of explosive runs, kept that clock moving and kept us on the field.”

Parker Kuehn had 107 yards passing with two touchdowns and another touchdown on the ground, with Lucas Milbrath catching three passes for 91 yards and a score. Kadyn Anderson had the other receiving touchdown.

Defensively for Springfield, Vanderwerf had 14 tackles, three for a loss, and an interception, while Isaac Ferdin had another interception. Aiden Moriarty forced a fumble, and Adiel Trevino recovered a fumble.

SEU also saw some success with the run game, but couldn’t convert it into points. Cody Schultz had 67 yards on 14 carries, while Jacob Fulmer had 40 yards on six carries and Gavin Fischer had 8 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Carson Uecker had 30 yards passing and two interceptions. On defense, Nick Tauer had seven tackles, while Wyatt Pollard had two sacks.

The Springfield defense got a three-and-out in the opening drive, and the offense marched the ball 83 yards on a scoring drive that ended in a 4-yard run by Vanderwerf, with the 2-point conversion going to Madden Lendt to go up 8-0. SEU responded with a touchdown drive of its own, going 53 yards and getting a 3-yard run from Fischer to cut the lead to 8-6, failing on the 2-point try.

Springfield’s offense continued to roll, putting together another long, 68-yard drive with a 25-yard connection from Kuehn to Milbrath that set up a 9-yard pass from Kuehn to Anderson for the score to go up 14-6. Sleepy Eye punted on its next drive, and Springfield got a 20-yard run from Vanderwerf to start its next drive, helping them go 48 yards on a drive that ended in a 21-yard strike from Kuehn to Milbrath who skied to snag the touchdown and go up 22-6.

The score stayed there through the half, as neither team reached the end zone for nine straight possessions. SEU dealt with turnover problems, and interception and a fumble interrupting two of its drives, while Springfield fought against penalties that set it back as far as first-and-30 at one point. Springfield finally got on the board again with 4:40 left in the game, with Vanderwerf charging in from 6 yards out to score and go up 28-6. Vanderwerf got an interception on the next offensive play for SEU, scooping up a tipped ball and taking it to United’s 29-yard line. Three plays later, Kuehn ran it in from 13 yards out to extend the lead to 34-6 with 3:03 on the clock.

At that point, both teams made substitutions and SEU ran out the rest of the clock, seeing some encouraging runs from Fulmer, who had all 40 yards during the drive, including a run of 20. Despite this, United ran out of time to score as the clock expired.

Springfield (5-0, 5-0) travels to St. James Area on Friday. SEU (3-2, 2-2) hosts Martin County West on Friday.