Tigers look to maintain perfect record against Warriors
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SPRINGFIELD -- With a 4-0 record, the Springfield Tigers have had as good a start as any football team in the state.
Not only did the Tigers break a school record with 80 points against Canby in the season opener, but they also redeemed its section finals loss against Murray County Central last year with a 40-6 win. A 67-6 win against Tracy-Milroy-Balaton and a 21-10 win against Dawson-Boyd later, and the Tigers remain undefeated half way through the regular season.
"I've been really impressed with the leadership that we have," Springfield head coach Adam Meyer said. "Our senior class is holding a really high standard both in practice and in games. Every single game so far this year I feel like we've come out of the gate playing really hard and playing really well. Executing our gameplans on both sides of the ball, including special teams."
Springfield had its first real test of the season against Dawson-Boyd, a team ranked 17th in Class A by QRF. The Blackjacks gave Springfield its first deficit of the season, but the Tigers showed why it's the second-ranked team in Class A by battling for the victory.
"Dawson-Boyd is a really strong team," Meyer said. "They have the potential to do some pretty cool things this year. But I thought we played really, really well and played hard for four quarters. We definitely needed to play a four-quarter game, we needed a physical game like that to see where we were at going into the second part of the night. I thought our kids handled everything really well.
"Some adversity that happened -- that was the first time we were really down this season, and then had a turnover in the third quarter -- just seeing our kids continue to step up and play really hard and manage our emotions and stay with it was really impressive against a really good team."
Springfield missed out on the state tournament last year after making it the previous three seasons, but Meyer said his team has been as collected and process-oriented as ever, even against the MCC team that eliminated them.
"Week 2 is Week 2 for us," Meyer said. "I feel like every game in our district and our section is a big one. I think we have a lot of really good teams, and it was one of those things where we played really well early on in that game again. Took advantage of our opportunities and came away with a big one."
The Tigers will face off against BOLD at home on Friday night for their Week 5 matchup. The Warriors haven't seen the kind of success they are used to in the past two seasons, recording just three wins since the start of 2025, but were a perennial contender for many seasons before that.
"Any time you play BOLD, it's going to be a physical game," Meyer said. "They play hard no matter what the records may show. They always come to play, they play physical football, they play disciplined football and at this part of the year, it's really starting to get ramped up for playoff time. We need to make sure we continue to play at a hard level and facing a different test that BOLD is going to bring than maybe we've seen in the past few weeks."
Meyer said the BOLD running attack is what the team has been focusing on.
"They spread the ball around a little bit in the run game," Meyer said. "Number 12, Gabe Bergstrom is the guy we've had to key in on. He was a good runner for them last year already, and returning, has run the ball well. He's a guy that can get really physical and get those short runs, but is also a guy that has popped out of the backfield a little bit and had some long runs as well. That's a guy that we're definitely paying attention to. Just watching film, their front on both sides of the ball looks to be their strength and something that we'll have to combat and make sure we're playing well up there."
While the team takes the season one game at a time, the Tigers know what it takes to have a state tournament-caliber season.
"Just making sure we're hitting on all cylinders," Meyer said. "We have to make sure we're getting to that postseason playing our best football. I think so far we've handled the tests that we've faced really well, and we hope to continue doing that. As you go through the year, you're always adding things on both sides of the ball and you just want to make sure the kids can execute on a high level."