MINNEAPOLIS — Ryan Meagher rushed for 199 yards and tied a Prep Bowl record of five rushing touchdowns on Friday morning to lead the Minneota football team to a 43-22 win over Springfield in the Class A state championship at U.S. Bank Stadium. The win is the ninth in program history for the Vikings

The game was a rematch of last season’s title bout, which the Vikings also won 38-21. This year was the Vikings’ third consecutive appearance in the Prep Bowl.

“We’ve been here three years in a row and it’s just a crazy experience to be able to come here that many times,” Minneota tight end and linebacker Sawyer DeSmet said after the game. “I think this one felt a little bit different for Max and me because it’s our last one and you’ve got the happiness that you won it and then you’re also, just I was really emotional that I’m done playing high school football.”

Meagher’s record-tying touchdown was a 48-yard run on the first play from scrimmage after a Springfield score, giving the Vikings a 43-14 lead late in the fourth quarter. The only other players with five rushing touchdowns in a game were Wayzata’s Christian Vasser in 2019, Owatonna’s Jason Williamson in 2017 and Cromwell’s Jordan Suhonen in 2010. When asked about the achievement after the game, Meagher credited the gameplan of offensive coordinator Matt Myrvik and Steve Sussner for opening up holes for him and the team’s other backs.

Meagher had also been playing through a lingering ankle injury, saying that he was at about 85-90% when asked about it after the game. He also said that he was unaware that he was one yard shy of the 200-yard mark after his last carry when asked about it.

“For him [Meagher] to do what he did and play banged up, that says a lot about his character. Obviously we’re happy he’s playing for us because he did a lot. Like he said, offensive guys did great things to open up holes for him and everyone else, so great performance about him and he never worries about that stuff. That’s not his nature. He doesn’t even want to talk, that’s why I make him come up here,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said.

The Vikings had a rare miscue on the game’s opening drive after Destin Fier fumbled following a 35-yard gain on a hit by Gavin Vanderwerf. Still, the Tigers weren’t able to use that turnover to gain any momentum. After taking over on their own 3-yard line, Springfield was able to muster just one yard against the stout Minneota defense before punting the ball right back to the Vikings at the Springfield 30-yard line.

Meagher took the game into his own hands from there. He rushed the ball on five consecutive plays, highlighted by a 25-yard gain to set the ball up at the 2-yard line and, shortly thereafter, a 1-yard touchdown run to put the Vikings up 7-0.

After stopping the Tigers on the following possession, the Vikings took advantage of a 21-yard run by Fier to get set up in Springfield territory. Minneota continued to run the ball until the Tiger defense locked in to stymie the Vikings at the 7-yard line. Facing a fourth-and-5, however, Minneota was able to draw the Tigers offside to set up fourth-and-1 and Fier punched in a four-yard touchdown run to put Minneota up 14-0 halfway through the second quarter.

From there, the Vikings started to pile on the points. Minneota forced another Springfield 3-and-out and proceeded to score again just four plays later, courtesy of a 23-yard pass from Ryan Dalager to Sawyer DeSmet to set the team up just outside the red zone and a 21-yard touchdown run by Meagher to make the score 21-0 with under two minutes remaining.

Springfield then moved the chains with an 11-yard run by Carter Olson to start the next drive. Yet, Alex DePestel and DeSmet combined for a sack on the next play, Keaton Jurrens broke up a pass on third down and Parker Bradley forced a fumble that DePestel recovered on fourth down to give the Vikings the ball at the 30-yard line. Dalager then found DeSmet for a 27-yard gain to set up Meagher’s third touchdown of the day from the 7-yard line. Max Rost took the reverse on the 2-point conversion outside the right tackle and dived over the pylon to give Minneota a 29-0 lead with two minutes remaining before the break.

Minneota’s secondary was particularly effective in the first half. The Vikings held the Tigers to 121 yards on 16 attempts before the break, getting a hand on several well-placed deep balls for a deflection.

“We just told them they had to be aggressive in this one… We knew they were going to get contested. This is what Springfield does and they do it very, very well. They’ve got some talented receivers to be able to do what they do,” Johnston said. “We just told them [Minneota’s secondary] all week long we talked about being aggressive and you’ve got to go after things… They’re going to make catches even when you’re playing good defense, so I was extremely happy.”

Johnston noted that there were a few times that the defense got hit with costly penalties but he was overall happy with the way they put pressure on the Tigers’ passing attack.

Not wanting to go to the locker room with a donut on the board, the Springfield offense sprung into action. Jakob Nachreiner completed 30-yard and 11-yard passes to Olson on consecutive plays to put the Tigers in Viking territory. Nachreiner tried unsuccessfully to target the hot hand again on the next two plays but found Brayden Sturm for an 11-yard gain on third down to move the chains and found Sturm again for a 9-yard touchdown on the next play to make the score 29-6.

In a surprising turn of events, Aiden Moriarty successfully converted the onside kick to set the Tigers up again at the Minneota 48 with under 30 seconds remaining. Yet, after a 10-yard pass to Olson and an 8-yard pass to Sturm, three straight incompletions ended the Tigers’ chances of cutting Minneota’s lead to two possessions at halftime.

Minneota rarely passed the ball on the day but also rarely needed to. Dalager attempted five passes for 72 yards. DeSmet caught three of those passes for 63 yards. Still, even without the passing yardage, Minneota’s 290 rushing yards were more than Springfield’s 277 total offensive yards. In addition to Meagher’s 199 yards on 29 carries, Fier took seven carries for 77 yards.

Looking to keep the momentum swinging in their favor, Springfield marched down the field to the Minneota 30-yard line after receiving the second-half kickoff. Yet, DeSmet made another big play on defense with a forced fumble recovered by Kyson Arndt to halt the Tiger drive.

The Vikings weren’t able to do anything after taking over and gave the ball back when Meagher fumbled the ball on fourth down. He recovered the ball but was shy of the sticks. After Springfield turned the ball over on downs again and Minneota punted on a 3-and-out, a botched toss to Sturm deep in Springfield territory was recovered by Kaden Neyens at the 1-yard line, just inches from the goal line. While he wasn’t able to get the touchdown, Meagher finished the job one play later with a 1-yard punch-in to make the score 36-6 to give Minneota its biggest lead of the day.

Springfield was able to capitalize on Minneota mistakes early in the fourth quarter. DePestel got to Olson for a 9-yard loss to start the Tigers’ drive but Minneota was called for defensive pass interference on the next play to keep the chains moving. Kellen Bradley then forced a fumble on the next play but the Tigers recovered to keep the drive going and Minneota was called for a hit on a defenseless receiver two plays later to move the chains once again, this time to the Minneota 17-yard line. After an incompletion on first down, Nachreiner found Olson for a 17-yard touchdown and Sturm caught the 2-point conversion to make the score 36-14.

Olson finished the day with nine catches for 163 yards on 17 targets. He finished just 35 yards shy of Devin Hulsteing’s Prep Bowl record of 198 yards set with Edgerton/Ellsworth in 2011.

Springfield’s excitement was short-lived as Minneota scored on a 48-yard touchdown run on the next play from scrimmage, giving him the record-tying touchdown and giving the Vikings a 43-14 lead. The only other players with five rushing touchdowns in a game were Wayzata’s Christian Vasser in 2019, Owatonna’s Jason Williamson in 2017 and Cromwell’s Jordan Suhonen in 2010.

Springfield was able to put one last bit of window dressing on the final score after taking a steady, 11-play drive down the field capped off by a touchdown to Sturm to make the final score 43-22 with under five minutes remaining. The Tigers were able to force a Minneota punt to get the ball back one last time but Max Rost intercepted a pass to give Minneota the ball with under 4 minutes remaining. He took two carries for a total of 13 yards and Meagher took another for five yards before the Vikings could take the victory formation.

Springfield’s 21-point loss makes them just the third team to come within 42 points of Minneota this season, the other two being B.O.L.D. and Canby. B.O.L.D. also gave Minneota their only one-possession game of the season, a 14-6 win over the Warriors in the Section 5A Championship.

“We felt going into this season, knowing what B.O.L.D. brought back from last year, that we were going to be well-tested. We knew it was going to be hard to get out of our section and that was one of the things that we reminded our kids about once in a while,” Johnston said. “You’re playing good teams to get to the state tournament. You’re in the state tournament, but we always felt like B.O.L.D. did a great job of preparing us. We kind of talked about, who else has got as good of athletes as B.O.L.D.? I mean, Springfield’s got great athletes, so does B.O.L.D., so we felt like that was a good test for us and got us to play at a level that we needed to throughout the season.”

Minneota caps off its season at a perfect 14-0. Excluding the 2020 season, which was canceled due to COVID-19, Minneota has won five of the last six Class A championships. They will graduate some key players, such as Dalager, DeSmet and Rost, but they will look to continue to be a force in the state tournament with other major contributors such as Meagher returning for another season.