Photo by Ari Selvey: Minneota running back Ryan Meagher, 20, runs through a tackler during the Class A Prep Bowl against Springfield on Friday at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Minneota Vikings defeated Springfield 70-20 to claim their third consecutive state football championship.

MINNEAPOLIS — Minneota earned its 10th state title with a 70-20 win over Springfield in the Class A State Football Championship game with Ryan Meagher leading the charge. The victory also marked Minneota’s third consecutive state championship, each of which has come against Springfield.

Meagher set the prep bowl record for rushing touchdowns with six in the game, good enough to break the school record for points in a career, and had 290 yards on the ground, good enough to break the school record for career rushing yards. 

“If you ask him about it, he’s going to turn around and give credit to his offensive line,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “We joked about it, it would be nice to have all those guys standing up here with him. Just a phenomenal kid.”

Meagher, never focused on personal accomplishment, was reluctant to talk about his role in the win that gave Minneota its third consecutive championship over Springfield, but acknowledged the part he played in the victory.

“The offensive line does a very good job listening to the coaches and how they gameplan,” Meagher said. “And then communicating to the coaches what they’re doing up front. That allows them to open up the holes. They were pretty big holes today, makes my job a lot easier when they do that … I wasn’t thinking about any records, I was thinking about winning the game. It’s a great accomplishment. I remember last year I tied [the prep bowl touchdown record], I didn’t know that there even was that out there. This year, same thing, I wasn’t thinking about it, but it happened.”

Springfield head coach Adam Meyer also gave Meagher and the Minneota offensive line their flowers, saying Meagher was one of the best running backs he’s ever had to face.

“He’s a physical runner,” Meyer said. “He’s agile too. He does everything well. But that offensive front is as strong as I’ve seen in my time here in Class A. You give him some gaps to run through, he’s a tough guy to bring down.”

Meagher and the rest of the Minneota seniors can finish their prep careers with three state championships, an accomplishment few high school players even dream of achieving. 

“I think, since we were young, we’ve had this goal to be here every chance we get,” Minneota senior Destin Fier said. “With the coaches that we’ve had our whole life, just want to give a shout out to Wade Gillund, he coached us from fifth grade to eighth grade. He’s the one that started us finding where we needed to be. We’ve just had big dreams that we could do what we did today.”

Minneota becomes the fourth team in its class to threepeat as state champs. The Vikings were the first team in the class to threepeat from 1986 to 1988, back when it was called Class C rather than Class A, and the first team to threepeat since Cook County won three in a row from 1997 to 1999. Chatfield also won three consecutive state titles from 1994 to 1996 and Mahnomen is the only school to win four in a row, doing so from 1990 to 1993.

The Vikings also made history by tying the Prep Bowl scoring record of 70 points, set by Triton in a 70-21 win over Luverne in the 2006 Class AA Championship. Minneota’s 50-point margin of victory is also the second-highest in Prep Bowl history, trailing only Esko’s 62-0 win over Karlstad in the 1975 Class C championship.

“Our sophomore year we didn’t play a huge role,” Minneota lineman Parker Bradley said. “But then our junior year we came out and tried to play a bigger role. We played for our seniors, and this year, it’s a little bit more of a motivator as a senior to go out and win as many games as you can and win a state championship.”

Bradley finished the day with a team-high 10 total tackles, his six solo tackles trailing only Easton Johnston’s eight. He was also one of three Vikings with a sack, along with Eli Gruenes and Hunter Carstensen.

Along with Meagher’s performance, Fier had 99 yards and a touchdown on the ground and an interception return for a touchdown, while Kaden Christensen added a rushing touchdown late in the game. Quarterback Brody Larson had 51 yards passing, only attempting three passes all game, and he added a 4-yard receiving touchdown, thrown by Lucas Rybinski. 

Springfield did manage to score 20 points on the Vikings’ defense, something that only two teams had been able to do this season. 

“That’s a credit to Springfield,” Johnston said. “We knew they were going to attack our secondary. That’s something we knew going into this and they did it well in the first half. Obviously, we made a little bit of adjustments, and I told the guys in the pregame, ‘We need to get things going on offense.’ We control things up front like we think we’re capable of doing, and we’re putting points on the board, that changes their play calling a little bit and makes it easier on us with all the RPOs that they do.”

Minneota found all the success they could want on offense, scoring on every offensive possession aside from the end of the first half. That, along with Fier’s defensive touchdown, led Minneota to tie the record for most points scored by a team in a prep bowl. 

The Vikings started off the scoring by taking the opening possession 56 yards, ending in a 12-yard rush by Meagher for the touchdown. Springfield responded with a 31-yard completion from Parker Kuehn to Brayden Sturm to set up a 9-yard rushing touchdown by Gavin Vanderwerf. Minneota retook the lead after a 60-yard rushing touchdown by Meagher, then forced a three-and-out from Springfield. Minneota extended the lead to 21-7 with a 15-yard rushing touchdown from Meagher, and Springfield responded once more with a 37-yard touchdown from Kuehn to a doubled Sturm, who hauled in the catch with one hand to get the Springfield crowd roaring. 

Feir turned the tide back in the Vikings’ favor on Minneota’s next drive, taking a reverse 52 yards to the house and extending the lead to 28-14. After a second Springfield three-and-out, forced by a sack by Gruenes, Meagher scored his fourth touchdown on a 57-yard rush. Springfield kept in the game with a 14-yard connection from Kuehn to Madden Lendt for a touchdown, but the extra point was blocked to keep the score at 35-20. Meagher made it five rushing touchdowns with a 2-yard score at the 1:49 mark of the second quarter, and an interception by Gruenes as Springfield got into Minneota territory kept it a 42-20 game at halftime.

The Vikings defense stepped up in the second half, not allowing another score as Meagher got his record-breaking touchdown on a 4-yard sweep to the right to make it a 49-20 game. Springfield had one more good chance to score as they got to a fourth-and-goal situation, but Vanderwerf was stuffed before he reached the end zone.

Minneota turned the following drive into a 4-yard touchdown pass from Rybinski to Larson, then Fier got his 72-yard interception return for a touchdown to put the score at 63-20. Minneota called timeout with 8:04 to play in the game to let the subs in, with Christensen scoring the final touchdown of the game for a 70-20 win.

Carson Javers also had an interception in the game while Kellen Bradley and Bretten Coequyt each forced a fumble.

Minneota’s basketball season is right around the corner, with practice starting for the boys team on Monday. The players who participate in both sports may need a little longer of a break to recover from the season.

“We’re taking a couple days off,” Johnston joked.

Minneota graduates 11 seniors in Meagher, Gruenes, Rybinski, Parker Bradley, Coequyt, Lincoln Jerzak, Chase Johnson, Brayden Downing, Kyler Lozinski and Noah Gorecki.