The
2022 football season for Spring Grove High School didn’t end the way the Lions
wanted. They led 19-0 shortly before halftime, and Mountain Iron-Buhl rallied
to win 28-25 Saturday and take home the Nine-Man state championship at U.S.
Bank Stadium.
Spring
Grove was 13-0 this season before losing Saturday. One year ago they had a
record of 3-5, including a 72-27 loss at Lanesboro to close the regular season.
To recover from that and get all the way to the Prep Bowl is a remarkable story.
“It's a great life lesson to get
knocked down and have to get back up and completely buy into something,” said
Lions coach Kody Moore. “Last year didn't go the way we wanted. We love our
guys and these guys took it personally.
“From the moment the season ended
last year, they were knocking down the door to get back in the weight room
because they had one goal in mind and they wanted to change things. And boy,
they sure did change things. And regardless of the fact that we didn't win it
all, I'm so proud of these guys in their efforts and what they learned from
battling through that adversity and putting together a great season. This will
take them far in life.”
The topic of adversity brings us to Hunter
Holland, a Spring Grove senior who has been an integral part of the Lions’
success. During Saturday’s game, Holland rushed 12 times for 76 yards,
including a 14-yard touchdown that gave the Lions the 19-point lead late in the
opening quarter. He also caught two passes for 13 yards.
And
like everything he does, Hunter did all that in the Prep Bowl with near-blindness
in one eye.
He
has dealt with a nasal condition
called arteriovenous malformations since he was 2 years old. It can result in
severe nosebleeds and Hunter has been treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. After
a standard procedure at Mayo in August, shortly before football practice began,
he started to lose sight in his right eye. Blood vessels had burst and vision
in the eye was disappearing.
When doctors told him that vision in that eye
would not return, it was frightening.
“I was scared. I started crying in
the hospital,” Hunter said after Saturday’s game. “It was a scary moment.”
But it was only for a moment. Hunter
said that the next day he wanted to get out of the hospital and prepare for his
senior football season. “I kept on asking the doctors, ‘Can I play?’ and they
said there’s no reason I couldn’t.”
A few days before the opening day of
practice, Hunter texted Moore with a simple message.
“He was like, ‘Coach, I'll be ready,’
” Moore said. “And he was still in the hospital. It's crazy.”
Football was a strong motivator for
Holland, who also is a basketball and track and field athlete.
“I wanted to be back with all my
boys, my brothers,” he said. “You put your mind to it. You don't let anything
stop you.”
Moore said, “It's hard to put it
into words just what he's dealt with. It’s something that teenage kids definitely
shouldn't have to deal with. From day one since he came back, you would never guess
that he had any vision problems at all. He never complains about anything.
“He's such a steady kid. And like I
said about these guys being good young men, good people going forward, in him
you can see that right there. What else could be thrown at him that's going to keep
him from being successful? Nothing. I’m so proud of him.”
--Mountain Iron-Buhl’s state title
is the second in school history. In 1972, the first year of football playoffs
in Minnesota, Mountain Iron won the Class B championship. And now, 50 years
later, title No. 2 is heading back to the Iron Range.
Miracle Finish Gives New
London-Spicer 3A Title
There were four seconds on the
clock, the New London-Spicer Wildcats trailed 26-21 and were 48 yards from the
end zone. The Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton were all set to celebrate a Class 3A
state championship. Then came the miracle.
In the official statistics from the
game, the play is described thusly: “No Huddle-Shotgun #4
B.Schultz pass complete deep right to #12 G.Paffrath for 48 yards to the DGF00
lateral to #81 B.Christensen for 0 yards to the DGF00 TOUCHDOWN, clock 00:00.”
Yes, a completed pass from Wildcats sophomore
quarterback Blake Schultz to junior Grant Paffrath on the 17-yard line who – as
a tackler grabbed him – flipped the ball to senior Brycen Christiansen, who ran
the final 14 yards into the end zone.
Pandemonium. It was one of those
sports moments that live forever, especially for the winning team. As the
Wildcats ran wildly from the sideline and celebrated in the end zone, DGF
Rebels lay scattered across the turf.
The 27-26 victory gave New
London-Spicer its second football state title, the first coming in 2009. The
Rebels were seeking their first state championship.
It was a back-and-forth game from start
to finish. DGF scored first, NLS tied it 7-7, NLS went ahead and DGF tied it
14-14 at halftime. NLS led 21-14 after three quarters, DGF scored but missed
the kick to trail 21-20 early in the fourth.
The Rebels seemingly were in control
after Jordan Summers scored on a 19-yard run with 24 seconds to play, giving
him 169 yards in 33 carries for the day. After the kickoff, New London-Spicer’s
final drive began at the DGF 43 with 17 seconds left. A false start penalty on
NLS was followed by two incomplete passes before the miracle play.
“The kids did exactly what we asked
them to do,” DGF coach Anthony Soderberg said afterwards. “Opinions don't
matter, scoreboards do. But the kids busted their butt from the beginning of
the game to the end of the game and they did it with class. They work together
as a team, as a family. And, you know, they're just a great group of kids.”
Hutchinson:
Home Of Tradition And Family Ties
Football
expectations are always high at Hutchinson High School, one of the state’s most
successful programs over the years. The Tigers have won six state titles, most
recently in 2012, 2013 and 2021.
Hutchinson
fell short of championship No. 7 on Friday, falling to first-time champ Simley
34-24 in the Class 4A Prep Bowl.
“Right now it stings a little bit
and it hurts,” coach Andy Rostberg said. “But we're going to celebrate these
boys a lot and they'll look back at this game, at their career, at this season.
There's a long list of a lot of great things that they did and that they
accomplished throughout their careers.
On
the bus ride to U.S. Bank Stadium, Rostberg and some longtime assistant coaches
discussed the family legacies in Hutchinson football.
“We
started thinking about fathers and sons
in Hutchinson that we've coached,” he said. “And without looking at our roster,
we came up with 68 fathers and sons that have played in Hutchinson, and I know
there's more than that if we had the rosters. And we do have a few grandpas,
son and grandsons, too. It is a family deal.”
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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