Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota running back Destin Fier runs between the tackles for a touchdown during the second quarter of a Class A quarterfinal matchup against Lester Prairie at Jordan High School on Friday night.

JORDAN — The top-seeded Minneota football team overcame a slow offensive start in the Class A quarterfinals on Friday night to claim a 41-0 victory over No. 4S Lester Prairie. The win sent the Vikings to U.S. Bank Stadium for the fourth consecutive season, but they showed they have bigger goals in mind when they broke their postgame huddle by yelling “State champs!”

“We kind of break down the season and from day 1, we say subdistrict champs if we feel like we’re the team that can be there,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “We’ve got pretty basic goals. We’re going to win the subdistrict playoff. We’re going to win section to get to the state tournament. Then we’re going to win the state tournament. So it was subdistrict first, finished that off and we started saying section champions. Finished that off, now we’re saying state champions. It’s just that next level where we want to be.”

Minneota started its first drive at the 40-yard line after a quality opening kickoff return from Destin Fier but wasn’t able to get anything out of the drive and was forced to punt. Yet, after forcing a Bulldog 3-and-out, the Vikings found some rhythm.

Fier nearly gave the Vikings their first chunk play of the game when he picked up a 15-yard run on third-and-6, but a holding call negated the gain to set up third-and-16. Despite the penalty, Ryan Meagher picked up 14 yards on a screen pass and Lucas Rybinski rumbled his way across the marker to keep the drive alive with a fourth-down conversion.

Another 14-yard run set up Minneota at the Lester Prairie 35-yard line. From there, Brock Fier turned on the burners to get behind the Bulldogs; secondary and Brody Larson lofted a pass up and into Fier’s hands for a 35-yard go-ahead touchdown eight minutes into the game.

Typically a run-first team, the Vikings threw the ball around more than they typically do on Friday. While the ground game remained key to the team’s success, they had no problem airing it out either in the first half, with Larson throwing the ball for 107 yards on the day.

“You start getting into teams that aren’t as familiar with you, then you kind of think that you’re able to do that and we were looking to expose some of the things they do defensively,” Johnston said. “We had guys open, I think we were just kind of slow to recognize it and weren’t seeing it. When you get to this level, you’ve got to be able to do those things. So of course, we’re going to these games and saying if we can get the pass game going, we need to get it going.”

The Vikings’ tenacious defensive efforts could have preserved that lead for the rest of the game. Minneota held Lester Prairie to negative yardage in the first half. The Bulldogs didn’t move the chains once until after halftime and took just one snap in the red zone all day.

“Our strength throughout the season has been our run defense. We felt like that was what they wanted to focus on, so we felt pretty good that we could do some good things,” Johnston said. “Nothing was perfect, it never is when you’re dealing with 17-year-old kids. But I thought defensively we played really well. Offensively, we just weren’t clicking in the first half, and I think part of that was credit to Lester Prairie. They came out and played physical right away, kind of surprised our kids a little bit, and we had to get in some rhythm.”

The lone red zone snap came toward the end of the first half. Minneota had the ball at the Lester Prairie 28-yard line with a 13-0 lead, but the Bulldogs punched the ball loose for a fumble. Brock Fier dived on the ball back at the Minneota 49-yard line to save the turnover, but the Vikings still had to punt on fourth-and-28. Rather than pinning the Bulldogs deep with the punt, however, an aborted snap went deep into the backfield before Fier again dived on it at the 20 to give Lester Prairie the ball.

Still, the good field position didn’t last long; Tom DeSmet came up with an 11-yard sack on first down to push the Bulldogs out of the red zone. They worked the ball back near the sticks on second down but a third-down pressure from Kyson Arndt and a Destin Fier pass breakup on fourth ended their lone red zone opportunity of the night.

Arndt led the team with five solo tackles on the day. His two tackles for loss also tied him with Eli Gruenes for a team-high.

The Vikings’ other first-half points came after another quality punt return from Destin Fier set up Minneota’s offense at the 37-yard line. Fier then quickly advanced the team into the red zone by taking a reception up to the 23-yard line before being taken down by his facemask, setting Minneota up at the 12. He finished the drive he started as the workhorse, punching in a 12-yard run to make the score 13-0. 

Minneota was called for a false start ahead of the extra point attempt and the kick went wide left. It was one of two times that a presnap penalty cost Minneota an extra point, as their penultimate point-after attempt in the fourth quarter was blocked following a penalty.

The Vikings’ 13 first-half points marked their second-lowest mark all season, beating out only their 7 first-half points against BOLD in the Section 5A Championship. Minneota pulled away with 28 unanswered points in the second half of the BOLD game, claiming a 34-28 win, and pulled away in similar fashion on Friday against Lester Prairie.

It took just one second-half drive for Minneota to return to its typical dominant form. The Bulldogs received the second-half kickoff and picked up their first first down of the night on the first play, but an Arndt sack immediately after eventually forced them to punt.

With the ball back in their possession, the Vikings quickly marched right down the field before Destin Fier punched in the touchdown. Holder Tristen Sussner then pulled the hold on the extra point attempt and threw the ball to Kellen Bradley for a successful 2-point conversion, making the score 21-0.

After the Viking defense forced yet another 3-and-out, a big gain on a screen pass to Lucas Rybinski set Minneota up at the 20-yard line. A pair of runs to Meagher made the score 28-0 in favor of the Vikings with 3:44 left in the third quarter.

Rybinski finished the game as the Vikings’ receiving leader with two catches for 45 yards. He also had two carries for 30 yards on the day.

In the waning minutes of the third quarter, Lester Prairie started to put a drive together with three first downs heading into the fourth. Yet, Minneota made a stand to force a turnover on downs at the 39-yard line. Rybinski then bobbed and weaved his way through the defense for a 24-yard run to the Lester Prairie 37-yard line, reclaiming any potentially lost momentum.

A few plays later, Meagher ripped off a 29-yard touchdown run with 10 minutes to play in regulation. Yet, the extra point was blocked, leaving the Vikings just shy of triggering the running clock rule.

After carrying the ball 39 times in the section championship game, Meagher got something of a break from his typical workhorse load as Destin Fier took on some of the workload to finish the game with eight carries for 95 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Meagher also carried the ball 17 times for 119 yards and two touchdowns.

“Destin’s done a good job in the last four, five games. I mean, he’s done it all year long, but he’s been giving us that extra guy that you need,” Johnston said. “You can’t just go back to Ryan carrying the ball 39 times last game. It just takes a beating on the body, so you’ve got to get guys mixed up and Destin’s a guy who’s done it for us all year long.”

With eight minutes remaining in the game, Chase Johnson caught a tip drill to come down with his third interception of the season. Rather than settling for the turnover, however, he took the ball 46 yards all the way to the house for a pick 6 and a 41-0 Minneota lead.

The Vikings improve to a perfect 11-0 on the season with the win. They’ll look to continue to look at home on the prairie when they take on the North’s No. 4 seed, Parkers Prairie, in the Class A semifinals at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The 9-3 Panthers upset top-seeded Upsala/Swanville 33-0 in the quarterfinals on Thursday, extending their winning streak to five games.