“We saw one high, they pressed,” Fredin said. “[Springfield head coach] Adam [Meyer], my dad, he’s a guru. Called that seam, it was perfect. Going through it, he [the defender] hit my heels, and I was trying not to fall over. Parker threw a perfect ball. The emotions, it’s hard to explain, but just pure joy waking in there.”

Going into the drive, Fredin said there was complete confidence in the huddle before they broke for the first play.

“We’re confident,” he said. “That’s part of our script day on Thursday. That’s our biggest deal. Our guys are poised, they’re calm, they’re ready to get the job done, they know what to do. Those guys are so focused, I don’t know any other team that can do it. They’re just an awesome group. It’s just so crazy.”

That was just one of three second-half touchdowns that the Tigers scored after a scoreless first half, turning the game around.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Springfield’s Aiden Moriarty reaches to catch a pass  during the opening round of the Class A Football State Tournament against Goodhue Tuesday at Mayo Rochester High School.

“The receivers made great plays on the balls,” Kuehn said. “We just want to go and give them a chance to go make plays over their guys. We feel like we’ve got some really great receivers that can make plays over them, and we called those plays so we could get those looks. Great play call at the end to get a touchdown to win. I loved that. It’s great.”

Springfield struggled offensively in the first half, finding themselves bottled up by a strong Goodhue defensive line. But some senior leaders stepped up in the second half to settle the team down and begin the scoring.

“Just a few team leaders to say a few things, everyone listens up to them,” Fredin said. “[Brayden] Sturm, Aiden [Moriarty], [Russell] Beers, Kody [Bast], Gavin [Vanderwerf], just all the seniors, they’re a great group of guys. They tell us what to do, we’re going to listen to them. Our coaches had us locked in, they told us everything was going to be OK. We knew we could come out in the second half and get the job done. We’re calm.”

Meyer added that he thought the team responded to the adversity of the first half admirably.

“Extremely proud,” he said. “I think our seniors did a great job of settling everybody down. I think a lot of the things that we needed to fix are things we can fix. The pre-snap penalties, it’s just the little things that I think can happen sometimes in bigger games when tensions get high, but I thought our kids did a great job of settling down on both sides of the ball. I thought we played well all night, it’s just we got in our own way a few times. I thought our kids did a great job of settling down and playing our style of game.”

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Springfield’s Parker Kuehn races to the edge during the opening round of the Class A Football State Tournament against Goodhue Tuesday at Mayo Rochester High School.

All three of Springfield’s touchdowns came from Kuehn. One went to Madden Lendt for 31 yards before Kuehn ran one in himself from 2 yards out. Kuehn’s connection to Fredin finished things.

Kuehn also had 181 yards passing, while Gavin Vanderwerf had 28 carries for 122 yards. Fredin had five receptions for 67 yards.

On the defense, Moriarty had 10 tackles and a forced fumble, while Vanderwerf had nine tackles. Joe Nachreiner and Sturm each had eight tackles.

The game started with a pair of three-and-outs before Springfield’s Colten Sell jumped on a loose ball to force a turnover of a team that only gave the ball away five times during the regular season. Despite getting the ball at Goodhue’s 39-yard line, Springfield was unable to gain a first down for the second time, punting it away to Goodhue’s 3-yard line.

Goodhue strung together a few good plays, including a 53-yard run by Nathan Beck, but a tackle by Moriarty stopped the Wildcats short on a fourth down, turning them over. Springfield came up short on fourth down on the resulting drive as well, setting Goodhue up for a 12-play, 81-yard drive where the Wildcats were able to control the line of scrimmage. The drive ended in a 6-yard touchdown run by Beck to give Goodhue a 7-0 lead. Springfield made an attempt to tie the game before halftime, but a penalty set the Tigers back to a first-and-goal situation from the 20-yard line. Kuehn’s pass to Sturm made it 15 yards, but fell short of the goal line as time expired in the half.

Things still went slowly for Springfield to start the first half, turning it over on downs and going three-and-out on its first two possessions. Kuehn got things going on the third drive, connecting to Kadyn Anderson for 10 yards to start a five-play drive ending in a 31-yard fade to Lendt for a touchdown. However, a penalty set Springfield back for the extra point, which sailed just left to miss and keep the score at 7-6.

Goodhue punted on its next drive, but Springfield fumbled on its first play of the next possession. The Wildcats capitalized with a 14-yard touchdown run by Luke Roschen to go up 14-6 with 7:33 to go in the half.

Springfield responded with a 11-play, 70-yard drive that included a 15-yard run by Kuehn and a 15-yard pass from Kuehn to a falling Moriarty to set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Kuehn. Kuehn ran in the 2-point conversion to tie the game at 14 with 3:10 left on the clock.

Goodhue was able to get a pair of first downs on its next drive, but the Springfield defense held strong, forcing a punt with 49 seconds on the clock. From there, Kuehn and the Springfield offense drove down the field, with a 12-yard run by Vanderwerf and a 15-yard catch by Sturm, assisted by an unnecessary roughness penalty, setting Kuehn and Fredin up for their game-winning play.

“I was just going crazy for that one,” Kuehn said. “It was awesome.”

Springfield awaits the results of the rest of the first round of the Class A State Football Tournament to find out who and when they will play in the next round. The game will be held at U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 16.