It was a feat in and of itself for SEU to force the overtime period, as Springfield took a 16-game regular season win streak into the matchup. But that loss 16 games ago was also against United, so it perhaps wasn’t surprising that the team’s rival was playing the Tigers so close, despite a 1-4 record coming into the game.

SEU took three carries for short yardage, presenting a fourth-and-goal from the 5-yard line. Springfield’s Aiden Moriarty and Leo Hovland combined for the stop, sending the Springfield offense out on the field.

The Tigers needed just one play to end the game as Isaac Fredin ran a speed out to the close corner of the end zone. Quarterback Parker Kuehn delivered the ball on time, giving Springfield the 28-22 win.

“Very cool moment,” Fredin said. “Just excitement. You get to beat your rival, and a close game like that, that’s all you can ask for really. It’s the coolest thing a player can experience.”

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye United’s Elijah Hoffmann (64) and Keeyan Netzke (44) celebrate after a sack Friday in a Mid-South District, Purple Subdistrict football game against Springfield at St. Mary’s High School.

SEU held the advantage early, holding a 22-9 lead into the fourth quarter. But the Springfield offense woke up late in the game, scoring twice, once on a pass from Kuehn to Hovland and another on a run by Moriarty to tie the game up.

“They had a step on us the whole way,” Moriarty said. “So this is a good lesson for us. Every team needs a little bit of this. Especially right now in the regular season. It was awesome. It was electric. Coming back from that was big.”

Moriarty said a key to staying in the game was relying on the team’s leaders to step up.

“It took our seniors,” he said. “It took our leaders. We knew we had to fight. We knew we could do it, we always knew we could do it, but they came out and they punched us in the mouth right away. We just had to step back for a second and know that we had to come back playing our game.”

Kuehn had 210 yards passing and three touchdowns on the day, while Fredin caught five receptions for 84 yards and a score. Braxton Brown had the other touchdown reception, and Paytin Johnson had 68 yards on the ground for the Tigers. Defensively, Moriarty had 18 tackles, and Adiel Trevino had 10. Madden Lendt forced a fumble that Tayte Hall recovered.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Springfield’s Kayden Anderson and Tayte Hall combine on a tackle on Sleepy Eye United’s Merrick Mathiowetz Friday in a Mid-South District, Purple Subdistrict football game against at St. Mary’s High School.

For SEU, Keeyan Netzke had 65 yards rushing, while Brayden Heiderscheidt had 76 yards passing and a touchdown, with 65 yards and a touchdown going to Carson Uecker through the air. Jacob Fulmer had 22 yards and a touchdown on the ground, and Heiderscheidt added 12 yards and a score on the ground.

Defensively, Elijah Hoffman had six tackles and a sack, while Nick Tauer had five tackles and a sack. Davin Suess added four tackles and a sack, and Uecker had an interception.

Despite the loss, SEU showed it had something more than its 1-5 record revealed.

“It’s just fire,” SEU head coach Brent Kucera said. “It’s want. It’s passion to win football games. That’s what we’ve got now. We were missing it in the first part of the season, and now we’ve got it.”

Springfield head coach Adam Meyer complimented SEU on the game they played, saying they were just as deserving of a win,

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye United’s Brayden Heiderscheidt stands after a touchdown during a Mid-South District, Purple Subdistrict football game against Springfield at St. Mary’s High School.

“I think they came out and honestly wanted it more than we did,” he said. “They played hard from the very beginning, first snap, and they were very physical up from. Those were some things that we struggled with on both sides of the ball, and we had a lot of things we needed to communicate and fix throughout the game. But just a huge credit to their staff and their players for the way they played tonight. The physicality, the execution, and they were disciplined all night. Very deserving of a victory on their side of things, but I’m glad we made just enough plays at the end to take it home.

The teams traded punts and turnovers on downs on the first four possessions, but Springfield was the first to score, with a 47-yard connection from Kuehn to Fredin setting up a 16-yard connection to Brown to put the Tigers up 7-0 with 46 seconds left in the first quarter. SEU fumbled on the following possession, but Uecker got the ball right back for United, collecting a tipped ball and downing it at the SEU 44. United got a 32-yard run from Uecker that helped set up Fulmer for a carry at the 2-yard line. After initially being stopped, Fulmer continued to fight to the end zone to make it a 7-6 lead.

It was one of many moments during the game that SEU showed its fight, as Netzke especially had several moments of gaining extra yards on the second effort.

“We couldn’t be more proud of how the team played,” Kucera said. “They fought with fire against the number two team in the state. We dealt with a lot of adversity this year, and we came to fight, and now we know we can make a run to end the season. We know we can fight with the best of them, so we’re going to make a run now.”

SEU forced a punt on Springfield’s next possession, but snap went over Moriarty’s head and went out the back of the end zone for a safety, giving SEU an 8-7 lead, which it took into the half.

Springfield returned the favor on SEU’s opening second-half drive, as the snap on a punt rolled out the end zone to give the Tigers a 9-8 lead. However, SEU was able to score on its next drive as Heiderscheidt connected with Uecker for a 46-yard touchdown pass to give United a 14-9 lead. Suess and Tauer each had a sack on Kuehn on Springfield’s next drive, and the SEU offense drove the ball back into the red zone, where Heiderscheidt took a bootleg and ran 12 yards for the touchdown, with Uecker throwing Heiderscheidt the 2-point conversion for a 22-9 lead with 7:42 to play.

Springfield had a nice return from Kayden Anderson to set them up at SEU’s 49 for its next drive. Six plays later, Kuehn threw a dart to Hovland for a touchdown to cut the lead to 22-16. SEU was forced to punt with 3:24, and Springfield got inside the red zone but was faced with a fourth-and-2 at the 16-yard line. Moriarty took the handoff and not only converted the first down but took the ball all the way to the end zone to tie the game at 22 with 1:04 to go.

Moriarty said he was most focused on getting the first down on the play, but the field opened up for him to score.

“Bury it, get a yard and keep playing,” he said. “But they really packed it on inside and we hit the bounce out outside and got in the end zone.”

On the extra point, SEU jumped offsides twice, prompting Meyer to send out his offense for the 2-point try from the 1-yard line. However, Moriarty couldn’t quite get the conversion as the SEU defense stood tall.

SEU got one first down but ran the clock out to send the game to overtime. From there, Springfield’s defense and offense worked together to complete the comeback.

“We started fighting through adversity and getting off the ball,” Fredin said. “That’s just the biggest part of the game. Our linemen were playing great. Once we’re doing that, we’re playing Tiger football again.”

Meyer said seeing the kind of adversity the team faced in this game was good for the team as the Tigers attempt to return to the state tournament for the fourth consecutive season.

“Adversity teaches you a lot about yourself,” Meyer said. “I think our kids did a great job of battling through it. I talked about our leaders at the end and those guys staying calm. They’ve played in big games before and they did a great job of keeping our team calm and making plays when we needed. We had guys we needed to go to in big moments, both sides of the ball, and they stepped up and answered.”

Springfield (6-0, 4-0) hosts Russell-Tyler-Ruthton on Thursday, while SEU (1-5, 1-4) plays at MACCRAY next Friday.