Photo by Jake McNeill/Marshall Independent From left to right, Springfield’s Brayden Sturm (17), Gavin Vanderwerf (28), Russell Beers (16) and Kody Bast (back-right) celebrate their Section 3A Championship following the title game against Murray County Central on Friday at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.

By Jake McNeill

jmcneill@marshallindependent.com

MARSHALL — After facing an early deficit, the top-seeded Springfield football team scored 13 unanswered points to defeat the No. 3 Murray County Central Rebels in the Section 3A championship game at Mattke Field on Friday morning.

The win gave the two-time reigning state runners-up their third consecutive section title.

“We knew that MCC was playing at a really high level and we knew that we needed to be playing our best this week,” Springfield head coach Adam Meyer said. “We weren’t overconfident by any means, we knew we had to put a good week of preparation in to get ready for this game and I thought our kids did a great job.”

Trailing 10-7 late in the first half, Springfield’s offense took the field at its own 24-yard line. After a first-down screen pass, Parker Kuehn connected with Brayden Sturm on two passes for a combined 48 yards. The first pass was down the seam to set up the offense by midfield, while Sturm leaped up over a defender to make a grab along the sideline for the second just outside the red zone.

Sturm had himself a game for Springfield, hauling in seven catches for 78 yards, accounting for more than half of Kuehn’s 153 passing yards.

“Brayden’s been doing that for three years now for us. We know he’s a guy that we can go to when we need a big play or pick up a third down [conversion], whatever it may be,” coach Meyer said. “He’s such a competitive kid and our team has a ton of trust in him to make those plays.”

After Moriarty ran the ball up the gut to get the Tigers to the 8-yard line, Kuehn threw Aiden Moriarty the ball on the bubble screen for the go-ahead touchdown with 32 seconds remaining in the first half. The Tigers held that lead for the remainder of the game.

Murray County Central made a slow march down the field on the game’s first possession. The Springfield defensive line broke through to force a fumble on third down from the 35-yard line, setting up a fourth-and-9, but Teague Meyer kept the ball himself on fourth down and sprinted 16 yards down the left side of the field for a first down into the red zone.

An MCC false start on second down gave the Tiger defense some breathing room and a sack from Gavin Vanderwerf set up third-and-18. Yet, Teague Meyer picked up 6 yards on third down to set MCC up at the 23-yard line. The Rebels opted to trot out Carson Engelkes for the 40-yard field goal attempt with the win and he grazed it just above the crossbar for a 3-0 Rebel lead with six minutes to play in the first quarter.

Springfield’s offense was nearly forced to settle for a three-and-out on its first possession but, facing third-and-7, Parker Kuehn improvised out of the pocket before finding Moriarty for a big gain to their own 45-yard line to keep the chains moving. Facing another third shortly thereafter, Kuehn scrambled for an 11-yard gain and Vanderwerf punched the ball into MCC territory for another first down.

From there, the wear and tear of stopping the run started to show. The Tigers started to bowl their way through MCC. When the Rebels appeared poised to focus in on the run, Kuehn threw a deep shot to a streaking Madden Lendt. Fighting through contact with a Rebel defensive back, Lendt jumped up to catch the ball at the 2-yard line before walking it into the end zone for a 30-yard touchdown.

After another slow march down the field, Gavin Gillette took a toss around the left side from the 31-yard line down the right sideline to cap off another methodical drive in the second quarter. The score gave MCC a 10-7 lead with 10-and-a-half minutes remaining in the first half. Yet, it would be MCC’s last score of the game.

Coach Meyer attributed the Tigers’ increased defensive success against MCC’s run-heavy offense to the playcalling of defensive coordinator Brandon WIlhelmi and his ability to throw different blitzes and different personnel at the Rebels.

“Just not letting them get comfortable offensively was huge for us,” coach Meyer said. “We put them in some third-and-long situations where they’re not really comfortable with those just based on the offense that they play, and then just let our kids play fast.”

Springfield controlled the ball for the final minutes of the third quarter and the first eight minutes and change of the fourth, slowly moving the ball down the field before stalling out in the end zone. Facing fourth-and-long from the 18-yard line, Kuehn threw the ball up into the end zone and Jordan Sturges came up with the interception with nobody near him. The touchback gave MCC the ball at the 20-yard line with 3-and-a-half minutes remaining in regulation.

“Once we got up 10, we knew that we really wanted to work clock, grind out some yards and shrink the game down,” coach Meyer said. “Running that triple-option offense, they’re built for long drives where the clock’s running, and if we could take them out of their game plan a little bit, we felt like that was going to turn in our favor.”

Facing fourth-and-10 from their own territory, MCC needed to make a play with just two minutes remaining. Teague Meyer threw the ball downfield but Russell Beers jumped up to snag the ball in traffic for effectively a game-sealing interception with two minutes remaining.

Springfield nearly got the ball back in the final minute with all three timeouts when after their initial kick went out of bounds, MCC elected to receive a re-kick. On the second attempt, the squib kick grazed off a Rebel’s hand and Springfield converged on the ball, but they couldn’t hold onto it and MCC took possession at the 40-yard line.

On the first play from scrimmage, Teague Meyer weaved his way through the Springfield defense for a 20-yard gain with 17 seconds to play. Teague Meyer then hit Andrew Holm with a screen pass to advance the ball to the 29-yard line with three seconds left to play.

The Rebels trotted out Engelkes for a 46-yard attempt with the wind gusting to the right, but Springfield called a timeout before the kick. MCC trotted out the formation a second time before audibling to a play with Meyer under center, prompting Springfield to call its second timeout. The Rebels trotted out the field goal unit a third time, to which Springfield called its third consecutive timeout without a play being run. When the Rebels finally got off the field goal on the fourth attempt, it fell about eight yards short of the goalpost and wide right.

Holding a 4-point lead at the break, Springfield didn’t start taking its foot off the gas to start the second. The Tigers quickly got a big play when Sturm mossed a defender for a 29-yard gain to the Rebel 33-yard line to start the drive.

A Murray County Central sack challenged the Tigers with a third-and-10, but Kuehn scrambled for a 15-yard gain to the 7-yard line. From there, Vanderwerf punched in the 4-yard touchdown for a 20-10 lead with eight minutes left in the third quarter.

Vanderwerf finished as the Tigers’ leading rusher in the game with 28 carries for 106 yards, as well as the defensive leader with nine tackles and a sack.

Lewis put MCC in a position to answer by ripping off a 25-yard run to start the Rebels’ next drive. Not only did he break off a big gain but he was ripped down by his facemask, giving MCC an extra 15 yards to move to the Springfield 35-yard line.

The Rebels converted on fourth-and-2 with a Teague Meyer run on the next set of downs, but the Tiger defense cracked down from there. Facing a third-and-11, Meyer improvised before throwing the ball to Gavin Gillette, who made a toe-tap grab just ahead of the sticks.

Yet, instead of moving the chains, the officials moved the ball back 15 yards after calling Gillette for an illegal participation penalty because he ran out of bounds before reentering the field of play to make the catch. Adiel Trevino then came up with a sack on third down, setting up fourth-and-27 and forcing a Rebel punt.

Springfield improves to 10-0 on the season with the win and will now prepare for the state tournament, which is seeded 1 through 4 in the South and North. The South’s 1 and 4 seeds will play at Jordan High School on Friday at 5:30 p.m. while the 2 and 3 seeds will be played at Rochester Mayo High School on Thursday at 7 p.m. Seedings will be announced over the weekend.

“Right now I’m just enjoying this. We can’t take this feeling for granted, so we’ll enjoy this one for a day,” coach Meyer said. “Once we figure out who our matchup is, we’ll start getting ready and prepare to hopefully play our best football of the year next Thursday or Friday.”

Murray County Central finishes its season at 8-3 with the loss.