Photo by Samantha Davis. Quarterback Brody Larson pitches to running back Ryan Meagher in the first quarter against BOLD at K.P. Kompelien Field Friday evening. The Vikings defeated the Warriors 42-14.

MINNEOTA — In a highly anticipated contest between two of the top football programs in the southwest region, the Minneota football team took down B.O.L.D. 42-14 Friday evening at K.P. Kompelien Field by controlling the ball on both ends of the field throughout the night. 

The night was bound to promise a game of high competition, which was fulfilled from the jump. The last time the two met was in the 2023 Section 5A tournament championship game, in which Minneota escaped with a 14-6 victory before going on to claim its second consecutive state championship.

“We knew it was going to be a big game. We expected a hard, fought game. [They’re a] good team, they’re a well-disciplined team, well-coached,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “The things I was hoping we would be able to do [we did], like offensively march down the field, take a lot of time off the clock, scoring is always a plus, being able to have those successful drives.” 

The Vikings and Warriors entered the evening both 2-0 on the season so far, each with a pair of blowout wins. Minneota started with wins over Russell-Tyler-Ruthton and Yellow Medicine East 54-21 and 61-0, while B.O.L.D. has defeated Windom and MACCRAY 56-14 and 70-6. 

Minneota was efficient on both ends of the field to secure their victory, forcing defensive turnovers and several successful pitches on offense between quarterback Brody Larson and running back Ryan Meagher. Meagher finished the night with 206 rushing yards on 23 carries while his backfield mate Destin Fier added another 71 yards on 11 carries. Fier also rushed for three touchdowns while Meagher rushed for two.

“They [B.O.L.D.] can be a very big-play team. They got good receivers … They’re so talented. If you take a guy out of the box and try to double team him, they’re so good at running the ball, just big and physical up front,” Johnston said. “We saw a couple big plays from them, they’re capable of that, but I thought we did a pretty good job of just bend-don’t-break philosophy.” 

The Vikings were able to bounce out to a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter, behind Larson and Meagher continuously advancing the field. 

Minneota received the punt, caught by Kellen Bradley who got a decent gain to the 20-yard line on their territory. 

A Larson pitch to Meagher who ran up the left side got a first down on B.O.L.D.’s 30-yard line, and then ran into the end zone off a handoff for their first touchdown at the 8:16 mark of the first quarter. Ian Myhre kicked a successful field goal for the early 7-0 lead. 

“Ryan Meagher is just a horse. He runs,” Johnston said. “I mean, we created some very good holes for him, and sometimes there weren’t big holes, and he just kind of created yards himself.” 

The Vikings created a quick turnaround to immediately return to offense, as they recovered the offensive kick to B.O.L.D., who had confusion on the field and let the ball drop. 

Meagher then ran in for another touchdown at the 5:25 mark in the first quarter, again followed by a good field kick from Myhre for the 14-0 lead. 

“I give a lot of credit to my offensive guys and their game plan. I told the kids, ‘They’re going to put you in a great spot, you got to execute.’ I think our kids did,” Johnston said. “We just were able to get those four or five yards of pop, that’s enough to keep the sticks moving. I think that was really successful for us.” 

On an attempted pass into the end zone for the Warriors, Johnson intercepted the pass and brought the ball back to Minneota and stopped any chance of B.O.L.D. getting on board with 6:37 to go in the second quarter. 

“Going into this game, I didn’t know how much we were planning on throwing it. We had a couple things that we put in, based on when we saw them [B.O.L.D.] last year,” Johnston said in regards to the decision of Larson running pitches and handoffs. “We had a couple nice balls, we had a couple nice catches. That’s what we needed. If you’re only going to throw the ball seven or eight times, it’s really nice if you go five for seven, or six for eight, or something like that. I felt like he [Larson] threw the right ball to a couple right people, and was very composed tonight.” 

Closing in on the end zone once more, a short throw to Lucas Rybinski with 1:25 in the half to go, and another successful Myhre field goal kick, brought the score to 21-0. 

With 27 seconds to go, the Vikings found themselves in the end zone with a short run-in through a gap in B.O.L.D.’s defense, and created a 28-0 lead to close the first half. 

To start the second half, the Minneota defense held the Warriors and didn’t allow much leverage to take place and took the ball back on offense. 

Meagher appeared to get shaken up after a collision running up a few yards close to the endzone, but was able to walk off the field unassisted a few minutes later. He did return to the game later in the third quarter.  

Fier was next able to touch into the endzone with five to go in the third quarter from a Larson pitch to extend their lead to 35-0, again after a successful field kick attempt from Myhre. 

The Warriors were able to find a response with a series of first downs and get on the board with their first touchdown, and successful field goal, with 39 seconds to go in the third, cutting the deficit to 35-7. 

“We had a couple big stops, we had an interception in the end zone, that was huge,” Johnston said. “Couple fourth down conversions where we stopped them on fourth and short, and again, those are huge.” 

Larson threw a pass down the left side to Rybinski to grab the first down near the 30-yard line by their endzone. 

Rybinski then again rushed near the endzone, for a goal-to-go next possession, which Fien was able to push into to add one more touchdown on the night and a 42-7 score. 

Each of Myhre’s field goal kicks on the night were successful. 

B.O.L.D. was able to run in for another touchdown of their own quickly after, by a successful long and open pass. 

As the game was nearing end with under a minute to go, Minneota got near their endzone and took a knee to let the time run and called the game. 

The Vikings also got a win over the Warriors in last year’s regular season matchup in a similar style, 42-28. 

Minneota, now 3-0, is on a journey to have a second-straight undefeated season and return to the state championship field for the fourth year straight. They will next travel to Canby on Sept. 20 for a 7 p.m. kickoff. 

“It’s week by week … Obviously we wanted to win this game, and we want to get better, but we have room to grow,” Johnston said. “We’ve got a long season ahead of us yet, week by week, and hopefully [we] stay healthy and just keep working and getting better.”