Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota’s Destin Fier celebrates with teammates after scoring a go-ahead punt return touchdown in the Section 5A football championship game against BOLD on Thursday at Mattke Field in Marshall. The Vikings defeated the Warriors 34-28 to claim their fifth consecutive section title

MARSHALL — Prep football fans in southwest Minnesota don’t often see the Minneota Vikings trailing. That was the case on Friday night when the Vikings fell into a 21-7 hole after the first half of the Section 5A Championship against BOLD. Yet, the four-time reigning section champs rattled off 21 unanswered points to surge ahead before claiming a 34-28 win to return to the state tournament.

“We hadn’t faced any adversity yet this year. I mean, we were down at halftime, that hadn’t happened yet this year for us, so we were kind of negative, some of us were kind of down, especially the seniors knowing that this could be our last two quarters,” Minneota offensive lineman and linebacker Parker Bradley said. “We tried to be more positive and then, as you saw, that first drive when we came out of halftime, that really gave us a spark.”

Despite facing a rare halftime deficit, the Vikings didn’t waste any time hanging their heads to start the second half. Ryan Meagher helped Minneota show signs of life with a 13-yard run and a 10-yard run on consecutive carries to get the Vikings into BOLD territory. 

Facing a third-and-8 on the next set of downs, Brody Larson faked a handoff to Meagher before spinning around and hitting Brock Fier with a screen pass for an 11-yard gain to keep the chains moving.

Meagher picked up another 8-yard run, unable to evade the last defender but setting up Minneota with a first-and-goal from the 8. He was stuffed on the following carry but took a pitch to the left on second down and stiff-armed his way through a tackler before scoring a touchdown to cap off the 5-and-a-half-minute drive.

Destin Fier came up with a six-yard tackle for loss on an option pitch man to set up a third-and-15 for B.O.L.D. and Carson Javers swatted the third-down pass attempt to force a BOLD punt, giving Minneota the ball back with three minutes to play in the third quarter.

BOLD tried to take advantage of the fact that Jack Gross is both their quarterback and their punter by faking the punt and throwing a pass over the middle, but the ball was overthrown and Minneota took over at the 30-yard line.

“I was a little surprised with the call, to be honest with you,” Johnston said. “That was kind of a brave move by them, they were aggressive. It gave us a little bit of surprise, but that kind of gave us a little bit of momentum that we needed and good football position.”

Once given free field position, Minneota didn’t let it go to waste. Facing a third-and-9, Kellen Bradley picked up an 11-yard gain to get the Vikings to the 19-yard line to close the third quarter and Meagher punched in the tying score with a series of runs from there.

Meagher was once again a monster between the tackles for Minneota, finishing with 39 carries for 213 yards and four touchdowns. Destin Fier also finished with six carries for 37 yards and one reception for a team-leading 19 yards.

“Part of [our second-half momentum] was just Ryan getting going. It’s almost like he ran with a little bit more of a chip on his shoulder,” Johnston said, adding that he felt Meagher had some opportunities in the first half but was limited after losing his footing a few times. “I’d definitely say BOLD dominated the line of scrimmage in the first part of that game. There were times you could go back and look like, well, maybe a lead blocker ran right by somebody and I said, ‘No, that guy is not wearing the same color jersey, you might want to hit him and there’s nobody else coming after you.’ I think some of it was just cleaning those things up and once you get a little momentum, it’s just kids being confident about themselves again.”

The Minneota defense continued to crack down on BOLD, forcing another punt from near midfield. Destin Fier, the deep man, said he was told to call for the fair catch but saw an opening and took advantage. After initially going to his right, he reversed field and sprinted down the left sideline nearly untouched to score the go-ahead touchdown, sending the Minneota crowd into a frenzy.

“Everyone was yelling, ‘Fair catch!’ but I saw room, so I decided, ‘I’m going to take it,'” Fier said. “The boys up front blocked, I had a lane, and I took it and just went… It was a pretty good feeling, but we also knew that we had to keep playing defense to seal the deal.”

Still, with nearly eight minutes left on the clock, the game was far from over. The Warriors marched their way down the field and Kaden Fischer capped off the drive with a pair of big runs to tie up the game with 5:30 remaining.

With time winding down in the fourth quarter, Minneota’s run-heavy offense was prepared to go for the kill. The Vikings took the ball into the red zone with under two minutes remaining when BOLD was forced to start calling timeouts. After they burnt their last timeout on second-and-goal, Meagher ran the ball in for a 34-28 lead with 59 seconds left to play after the blocked extra point.

The Warriors got up to midfield with a series of quick passes. BOLD had one last opportunity to force overtime or win the game, but Kyson Arndt came up with the clutch strip sack to seal the victory and send Minneota to its fifth consecutive state tournament.

“It feels good [to make that game-sealing play]. It’s a lot better earning it than having it given to you,” Arndt said.

It didn’t take long for BOLD’s offense to get going. On the first play from scrimmage, Gross dropped back and hit Hudson Vosika on a skinny post between the hash marks for a 70-yard touchdown, taking a 7-0 lead just 90 seconds into the game.

Minneota didn’t let BOLD retain its lead for long. Destin Fier picked up the squib kick and returned it 20 yards to the Minneota 49-yard line. Meagher took over from there, running the ball on seven of the Vikings’ eight plays before eluding a series of tacklers for an 8-yard tying touchdown just over three minutes later. 

The game’s opening minutes marked a stark departure from last year’s section championship between the two teams, in which the Vikings defeated the Warriors 14-6. Meagher scored a 1-yard touchdown to give Minneota a 7-0 lead in the second quarter of that game and Destin Fier scored the dagger with a 62-yard third-quarter score.

From there, however, Minneota’s offense stalled out for the remainder of the first half. They punted each subsequent drive heading into halftime except for their final one, in which they converted a fourth-and-1 before rushing down the field in the final minute. With one second left on the clock, Larson snapped the ball from the 14-yard line, but his pass to Eli Gruenes in the corner of the end zone was picked off by Vosika and returned 99 yards to the end zone for a 21-7 halftime lead. 

Johnston said the Vikings were looking to get points on the last drive of the half, but the main focus was just avoiding giving BOLD an opportunity with the ball back. They were just out of their desired field goal range and decided to take the shot at the end zone, leading to the pick 6, and Johnston said that play was what made it crucial for the Vikings to come out strong to start the second.

Larson finished the game with nine attempts for 36 yards, completing three of them.

Lucas Rybinski and Kellen Bradley led the Vikings with six and five tackles respectively, as well as a pair of assisted tackles for Rybinski and one for Bradley. 

BOLD’s second score of the day came on their second possession. Gross found Colton Baumgartner streaking down the sideline for a 44-yard gain to the Minneota 10-yard line. On the next play, Vosika mossed a Minneota defender just inside the pylon to make the score 14-7 in favor of the Warriors with just over a minute to play in the first quarter.

The Warriors had a veteran group this year, with many key players such as Gross and Vosika being four- or five-year starters playing their final game. Johnston said with a laugh that Gross and Vosika are great kids, but he feels fortunate not to have to gameplan for them again.

After surviving the scare, Minneota improves to 10-0 on the season as they advance to the state tournament. 

“We’re so fortunate to have such a competitive section that gets us ready for state. I’ve got to give these guys [BOLD] props, they’re such a great football team, from their coaches to their players to their scheming,” Bradley said. “They’ve given us struggles the past two, three years, so we can’t be down on ourselves about halftime or anything about how we were down. We knew that this was going to be a dogfight and obviously it was.”

The South’s 1 and 4 seeds will play at Jordan High School on Friday at 5:30 p.m. while the 2 and 3 seeds will be played at Rochester Mayo High School on Thursday at 7 p.m. Seedings will be announced over the weekend.