BACK IN FINAL

After a dominating first half and a seemingly comfortable lead, Minneota had to hang on to every second before emerging with a hard-fought 28-27 victory over Fillmore Central in the Class A state football semifinal game Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Lost in all the excitement of the Falcons' last-minute comeback bid was Minneota's Anthony Rybinski denying the Falcons a potential game-winning two-point conversion with only 3:15 remaining in the game.
Trailing 28-21, Fillmore Central scored on a one-yard keeper by quarterback Dillon O'Connor. Instead of kicking the extra point where Atlee Fischbacher had only missed once in 27 attempts all season, the Falcons went for the win.
O'Connor backpedaled as he looked for an open receiver, the rolled out to the left. Rybinski quickly gave chase and dragged O'Connor down just as he released the ball, The jolt caused the ball to fall harmlessly to the U.S. Bank Stadium carpet. That play eventually stood up in what would be a controversial and frenzied finish.
The Vikings will meet Springfield in the state championship at 10 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 3 back at U.S. Bank Stadium, the home of the Minnesota Vikings.
"There was relief," said Minneota coach Chad Johnston. "But there was also the thought of what just happened? We went from feeling in complete control to two unanswered touchdowns, to a third where we could have lost the game. It was a tale of two halves."
Rather than attempt an onside kick after failing the two-point conversion, the Falcons elected to kick deep to the Vikings. The gamble paid off as the Vikings were held to a three-and-out. Peyton's Gillund's 40-yard punt then left Fillmore Central 74 yards away with only 1:26 showing on the clock.
The pass-happy Falcons wasted no time with O'Connor completing a 10-yard toss on first down to Bryce Corson, then connected with Corson again for 31 yards to the Vikings' 36. After three straight incompletions, including an intentional grounding call followed by a false start penalty, the Falcons faced fourth-and-30 from their own 48 with the game appearing to be over.
O'Connor then completed a throw to Chase Christianson, who tossed a lateral to the trailing Corson, who raced down the right sideline just beyond the first-down sticks before stepping out at the 18 yard-line with 11 seconds left. Corson appeared to step out of bounds a few yards shy of the first-down marker, but replays were inconclusive, giving the Falcons one last gasp with no timeouts left.
Hudson Scholten then sacked O'Connor for a six-yard loss as the clock clicked the final seconds off. But Scholten was injured on the play, forcing the officials to stop the clock with :03 left.
"Both of my legs cramped up," Scholten explained. "I was trying to get up but they said it wasn't quick enough so I had to go out for one play."A final O'Connor pass into the right corner of the end zone was beyond his receiver and the Vikings were able to begin celebrating.
Fillmore Central scored on the opening drive of the game, a seven-play, 69-yard drive capped by a TD toss from O'Connor to Corson.
The Vikings' defense tightened after that, limiting the Falcons to only 53 yards the rest of the first half.
"We played a good first half," said Scholten. "This was their first time here so they might have been a little nervous, especially when we kept scoring."
Minneota also scored on its first series, tying the game, 7-7 with 4:08 left in the first quarter. The 10-play, 59-yard drive was all on the ground. Isaac Pohlen capped the drive with a one-yard sneak in which he stretched the ball over the goal line. Zack Fier carried seven times for 38 yards in the drive. Ryan Meagher had two totes for 20 yards.
Fillmore moved the ball to the Minneota 34 before trying a trick play on fourth down that Minneota thwarted.
The Vikings then scored eight plays later on a four-yard touchdown run by Rybinski. After running on every play in the opening drive, the Vikings opened this series with three straight complete passes by Pohlen.
On Fillmore's ensuing possession, Destin Fier intercepted O'Connor's pass intended for Kyle Daniels, giving the Vikings the ball at the Falcons' 45. Facing third-and-15 on the 38, Pohlen fired a pass to Ryan Dalager on the right sideline. Dalager, knowing the defender was bearing down on him, stretched out his arms to haul in the pass as the defender flew by. Dalager then raced untouched down the sideline for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead that would stand at halftime.
On its third possession of the third quarter, Minneota got on the board again, this time on a four-yard TD run by Meagher.
From that point on, the Vikings were held in check as Fillmore Central mounted its comeback bid.
"They made some adjustments at halftime and got the momentum on their side," Johnston noted. "It came down to a field position game after that."
O'Connor scored his second touchdown on a 19-yard run to make it 28-14. On its next possession, Fillmore scored again on a 30-yard pass from O'Connor to Christianson with 9:39 left in the game.
Minneota went three-and-out on its next possession and Gillund's 47-yard punt left the Falcons at their own 16 with 7:25 to go.
O'Connor hit two long passes to Jake Fischbaugher and Corson in the drive. On second
-and-goal, O'Connor scored from a yard out. The Falcons then decided to go for the two-point conversion and the win. Peyton Sheik's initial pressure forced O'Connor to step up in the box and when no one was open on the right, he rolled out to the left. Rybinski came in untouched from his linebacker position and caught O'Connor from behind. As O'Connor was going down, he tried to get a pass off, but it fell harmlessly to the turf.
"I shot the gap and no one blocked me so I was pretty sure I could catch (O'Connor)," said Rybinski.
"They had planned to go for two if that situation came up, I was told," Johnston said. "So, they had plans for that play. We put our goal line defense out there. We had been rushing four and we hadn't been able to get much pressure, so we put six in the box."
Minneota, needing to move the chains in order to run out the clock, were forced to punt and Fillmore took over on its own 26 with 1:26 left.
O'Connor completed passed of 10 and 31 yards before eventually moving to the Vikings' 18 following the 30-yard hook-and-ladder play on fourth down. O'Connor then found Corson free in the back of the end zone, but Fier and Gillund arrived just as Corson was trying to haul it in and knocked the ball free.
"We stayed positive that we could stop them," said Rybinski. "We never thought that we would lose, but we were fortunate to come away with a win."
Scholten then sacked O'Connor and a final pass went incomplete.
Fier finished with 136 yards rushing, and Meagher added 55. Pohlen completed all six of his pass attempts for 86 yards and a TD. Gillund had seven tackles and Parker Bradley six.
Fillmore outgained the Vikings in total yards, 394-312.
"Give Fillmore credit," said Rybinski. "A lot of teams down 28-7 late in the third quarter would have given up. They made us work hard for this win."
O'Connor threw for 326 yards. Corson caught 15 passes for 183 yards, while Christianson had 10 receptions for 121 yards.

Minneota 28, Fillmore Cent. 27
Fillmore Central..............7 0 7 13 - 27
Minneota........................7 14 7 0 - 28

Scoring Plays
FC - Bryce Corson 7 pass from Dillon O'Connor (Atlee Herschberger kick)
Min - Isaac Pohlen 1 run (Peyton Gillund kick)
Min - Anthony Rybinski 4 run (Gillund kick)
Min - Ryan Dalager 38 pass from Pohlen (Gillund kick)
Min - Ryan Meagher 4 run (Gillund kick)
FC - O'Connor 19 run (Herschberger kick)
FC - Chase Christianson 30 pass from O'Connor (Herschberger kick)
FC - O'Connor 1 run (pass failed)

Team Statistics
Total yards: Minneota 312, Fillmore Central 394 .... Passing yards: Minneota 86, Fillmore Central 325 ... Rushing yards: Minneota 226, Fillmore Central 69 ... First Downs: Minneota 16, Fillmore Central 17 ... Turnovers: Minneota 0, Fillmore Central 1 ... Penalties: Minneota 5-30, Fillmore Central 4-30.

Passing
MINNEOTA (com-att-yds-td-int): Isaac Pohlen 6-6-86-1-0 ... FILLMORE CENTRAL (com-att-yds-td-int): Dillon O'Connor 19-37-326-2-1

Rushing
MINNEOTA: Zack Fier 23-136, Ryan Meagher 8-55, Anthony Rybinski 6-20, Isaac Pohlen 7-13, Max Rost 1-2 ... FILLMORE CENTRAL: Dillon O'Connor 12-71, Kyle Daniels 1-2, Bryce Corson 7-(-1), Chase Christianson 1-(-3)

Receiving
MINNEOTA: Zack Fier 2-27, Peyton Gillund 2-13, Ryan Dalager 1-38, Sawyer DeSmet 1-8 ... FILLMORE CENTRAL: Bryce Corson 15-183, Chase Christianson 10-121, Jake Fishbaugher 4-15, Greg Kennedy 5-6, Luke Hellickson 1-0

Tackles
MINNEOTA (solo-assist-total): Peyton Gillund 5-2-7, Parker Bradley 3-3-6, Alez DePestel 2-1-3, Hudson Scholten 1-2-3, Max Rost 2-0-2, Destin Fier 1-1-2, Eli Gruenes 1-1-2, Sawyer DeSmet 1-1-2, Brody Larson 1-1-2, Carson Javers 0-1-1, Andrew Lipinski 1-0-1, Browdy Lozinski 1-0-1, Keaton Jurrens 1-0-1, Jack Lacek 0-1-1, Peyton Sheik 0-1-1, Joe Verschelde 0-1-1 ... FILLMORE CENTRAL (solo-assist-total): Kyle Daniels 6-5-11, Chase Christianson 4-6-10

Tackles for Loss
MINNEOTA: Hudson Scholten 1 1/2, Alex DePestel 1, Browdy Lozinski 1, Parker Bradley 1/2, Destin Fier 1/2, Sawyer DeSmet ½

Sacks
MINNEOTA: Hudson Scholten 1 1/2, Sawyer DeSmet ½ ... FILLMORE CENTRAL: None

Interceptions
MINNEOTA: Destin Fier 1 ... FILLMORE CENTRAL: None

Punting
MINNEOTA (number-avg.): Peyton Gillund 5-39.4 ... FILLMORE CENTRAL (number-avg.): William Parker 3-40.0