ROCHESTER — The Superlarks are headed to the Metrodome.

The Grand Meadow football team brought the pain from the first snap of the game and they bruised their way to a 34-20 win over Mountain Lake Area in the state nine man football quarterfinals in Rochester and Community and Technical College Friday.

The Larks finished the night with two 100-yard rushers and they held a the physical Wolverines to 170 yards on the ground.

GM linebacker Perry Stejskal made his presence known early with some big hits and the Larks held ML to zero or less yards on 10 of their 43 carries.

“I think getting hits on them early got them off of what they were trying to do,” said GM sophomore linebacker Landon Jacobson, who also ran for 172 yards and a score. “It set the tone for us and it made them think what was up.”

The GM defense made a huge play on ML’s opening drive as the Wolverines ran a play-action roll-out pass on first and goal from the six-yard line, but Collin Jacobson snuffed it out for a sack that moved the Wolverines back 12 yards and prevented them from scoring on their first possession.

“Coach told me all week to be ready for the bootleg and I was just reading that and keeping containment,” Collin Jacobson said.

While GM (11-1 overall) used its ground game for most of its opening drive, the Larks got on the board when Trenton Bleifus hit Bryce Benson for a six-yard score on fourth and goal. Bleifus put the Larks up 12-6 when he found Collin Jacobson for a 64-yard bomb with 8:41 left in the second quarter.

“Once you start running the ball, the play action was wide open,” Bleifus said.

Landon Jacobson put GM up 20-6 on a 26-yard TD run down the sideline, but he was pretty quick to credit Stejskal, who ran for 103 yards, including a 4-yard run that made it 28-14 with 7:02 left in the game.

“Perry can run the ball and he’s one of our main blockers,” Landon Jacobson said. “He’s also a beast on defense. He takes on blocks and he gets tackles.”

The Wolverines had the ball down 20-14 to start the fourth quarter, but their quarterback Carter Kirk fumbled on third down and GM’s Brock Johnson recovered it at the ML 38-yard line.

The Larks responded with an 8 play, 38 yard drive that was capped by Stejskal.

GM attempted just eight passes in the win, while running 46 times.

“We didn’t throw the ball very much and we thought we could run the ball on them,” GM head coach Gary Sloan said. “We would’ve liked to throw more to open it up, but we went with a more conservative approach.”

Grand Meadow will now play South Ridge (10-1 overall) in the Metrodome in the state semifinals Friday at 9 a.m.

GM STATS

Rushing: Landon Jacobson, 17-for-172, TD; Perry Stejskal, 16-for-103, TD; Trenton Bleifus, 13-for-53, TD; Passing: Bleifus, 5-for-8, 95, 2 TD; Receiving: Collin Jacobson, 1-for-64, TD; Landon Jacobson, 2-for-13; Stejskal, 1-for-12; Benson, 1-for-6, TD; Sacks: Benson (2), Collin Jacobson (1); Fumble recoveries: Brock Johnson (1); Penalties: 5-for-40

SCORING SUMMARY

ML 0 6 8 6 — 20

GM 6 6 8 14 — 34

First quarter

(GM) Benson 6 pass from Bleifus (run failed) (13 plays, 83 yards) 3:07

Second quarter

(ML) Andrew Hempeck 1 run (run failed) (11 plays, 74 yards) 10:37

(GM) Collin Jacobson 64 pass from Bleifus (run failed) (4 plays, 75 yards) 8:41

Third quarter

(GM) Landon Jacobson 26 run (Benson from Bleifus) (6 plays, 70 yards) 9:10

(ML) Carter Kirk 19 run (Kirk run) (11 plays, 80 yards) 4:34

Fourth quarter

(GM) Stejskal 4 run (Stejskal run) (8 plays, 38 yards) 7:02

(ML) Josiah Stoesz 29 pass from Kirk (pass failed) (12 plays, 91 yards) 3:26

(GM) Bleifus 8 run (run failed) (5 plays, 52 yards) 1:13