Independent file photo Minneota’s Kyson Arndt (64) pulls down a Parkers Prairie rusher during the Class A State Football Tournament Saturday at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneota and Springfield football teams will make history when they take the field at US Bank Stadium Friday for the Class A state championship. The battle of two 12-0 teams will mark the third state championship in a row between the two teams, the first time in the 52 years of the Prep Bowl that there’s been the same championship pairing in three consecutive seasons.

Friday’s championship will present Minneota with the opportunity to claim its second threepeat, its first coming from 1986 through 1988, and its 10th overall title. It would put Minneota in rarified air as one of four teams in double digits, along with Totino-Grace (formerly Fridley Grace) at 10 and Eden Prairie and Caledonia with 111 each.

“It’s an accomplishment by itself. To be in a state championship game three times in your career is just an unusual feat for a lot of people, but now you’ve got some seniors on the team that have an opportunity to be state champions three times in their career,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “It will be a pretty impressive feat if these guys can pull it off. Does it get old by any means? No, it doesn’t, just the fact that we’re in a position where we’re happy about what we’ve been able to accomplish. But I think this group is really focused to be able to pull off the threepeat.”

For Springfield, the Tigers are aiming for the second state championship in program history, the first of which came in 2005 in their first Prep Bowl appearance. Springfield head coach Adam Meyer attributed his team’s ability to return to the state championship to its balanced roster. He cited the fact that Springfield has the size to stop the run without needing to commit extra players into the box, and offensively having an even balance of passing and rushing in large part due to the talent of the veteran offensive line.

When the two teams met last year, Springfield was a much more pass-heavy team with Jacob Nachreiner under center. The senior signal-caller threw for 3,431 yards, 55 touchdowns and 10 interceptions last season, including 226 yards and three touchdowns in Springfield’s 43-22 loss to Minneota in the state championship.

Brayden Sturm and Carter Olson also had 20 receiving touchdowns each with Olson racking up 1,288 receiving yards and Sturm adding another 1,066. While Sturm returns this year, holding 638 receiving yards and six touchdowns to date, Springfield has made more use of its rushing attack this time around. Still, sophomore quarterback Parker Kuehn has been solid in his first year as a starting quarterback with 2,146 yards, 30 touchdowns and six interceptions.

“I’d love to be able to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to switch up our coverages, we’re going to try to hide some coverages and do all those things that would potentially mess with a young kid,’ but you don’t have a lot of time to do that,” Johnston said of attacking the Springfield air attack. “You’re talking about young kids that you’re trying to hopefully not confuse them in the first place. So we’re going to tweak some things… try to maybe get in his head a little bit and not give him the open looks that he’s been getting, but yeah he’s a very good young quarterback and hopefully we can get him rattled a little bit.”

The focal point of the Springfield offense so far this season, however, has been Gavin Vanderwerf. The senior running back got some action last year, finishing with 416 rushing yards on 70 carries, but was stuck behind Samuel Rummel who finished with 1,002 yards and eight touchdowns. Now with the keys to the car, Vanderwerf has gone on a joyride through opposing front 7s, averaging 7.3 yards per carry for 1,481 yards and 10 touchdowns. 

Still, Minneota retains a solid advantage on the ground game with Ryan Meagher in his senior season. As a junior, Meagher tied a Prep Bowl record with five rushing touchdowns in Minneota’s win over Springfield. He also had 199 yards on 29 carries in the game, bringing his season total up to 2,224 yards on 9.7 yards per carry.

Even with the reduction in passing yards, Johnston said Minneota will still aim to treat Springfield like a pass-first team in order to limit the Tigers’ ability to break the game open with big plays. 

“They have two really big backs in the backfield, but [run defense] has been one of our strengths on defense this year,” Johnston said. “We’re really challenging our kids, the guys up front, to try to do our best to contain that rushing game so that hopefully the guys in the backfield can really focus more on the passing game.”

While his numbers haven’t been quite as gaudy as last year’s, they remain eye-popping. His efficiency remains at the top of the game with 9.5 yards per attempt and he’s accumulated 1,670 rushing yards with 34 touchdowns. Destin Fier has also provided solid backfield support with 689 yards and 11 touchdowns on 11.9 yards per attempt.

“[Meagher] is as good of a running back as I’ve seen. He’s a very physical presence in the run game, but also has great agility and speed to break off big runs,” Mayer said, adding that Fier, Lucas Rybinski and tight end Eli Gruenes provide Minneota with additional weapons that Springfield needs to watch out for. “[Meagher] reads blocks very well and sets up cuts that he makes to get into the second level of the defense.”

Since halftime of the Section 5A championship game against BOLD, Minneota’s defense has been lights-out. The Vikings held BOLD to one touchdown in the second half, overcoming a 21-7 halftime deficit to claim a 34-28 win for their fifth consecutive section title. 

Since then, the defense has only gotten stronger with the Vikings pitching consecutive shutouts in the state tournament. After earning the 1 seed in the South quarterfinal, Minneota dominated Lester Prairie by a final score of 41-0 and then walloped a red-hot Parkers Prairie team by a score of 45-0.

“Their defensive front and linebackers play extremely fast and physical. They play the run very well and allow the defensive backs to play the pass almost exclusively,” Mayer said. “They also do a great job of keeping the ball in front of them and limiting explosive plays down the field. We will have to mix it up between run and pass and take advantage of our opportunities when we do get them to make plays down the field.”

Springfield, meanwhile, has faced a bit more adversity. The Tigers trailed Goodhue 14-6 with four minutes left in the Class A quarterfinals before Kuehn ran in the tying touchdown with 3:10 to play and connected with Isaac Fredin for a 32-yard touchdown pass in the final minute to secure the 20-14 win. The third-seeded Tigers also trailed 16-0 heading into the fourth quarter of the semifinals against Mahnomen/Waubun but scored 30 fourth-quarter points to claim a 30-16 win and return to the state championship.

“I feel like we’ve started off games really well all season until the last two, but our focus is avoiding penalties and missed assignments early in the game this week,” Mayer said of the slow starts. “We know the margin for error is very small against the teams we play in state tournaments, so we need to be sharp from the very first kickoff.”

Kickoff at US Bank Stadium is slated for 10 a.m. on Friday.