GRAND MEADOW — Just more than a decade ago, Grand Meadow seniors Trenton Bleifus and Isaac Tangen were a couple of seven-year old kids playing backyard football and dreaming of playing in the Metrodome.

Then Bleifus brought down Tangen on a tackle and broke his arm.

The two been have teammates and friends ever since as Bleifus has always played quarterback and Tangen has been his center.

“(Trenton’s) very athletic and he’s very good,”Tangen said. “I wouldn’t want to play for another quarterback.”

This Friday Tangen and Bleifus will play in the Metrodome in Minneapolis for the second straight season as they play Kittson County Central (12-0 overall) in the state nine-man football semifinals at 9 a.m. The Superlarks took second in the state last season, but 10 players from that team graduated, leaving this year’s team with a young roster.

“I knew we could be good this year if all of the younger kids could step up,” Bleifus said. “They’re doing great, and now I think we can win it all this year. We’ve just got to take it one game at a time.”

Bleifus and Tangen are GM’s two captains, and they’ve done a lot to help prepare some of their younger teammates for the postseason run they’ve been able to put together. Tangen has emerged as more of a leader this season as he was one of the team’s youngest linemen as a junior last year.

“We’ve been trying to teach the younger kids. Hopefully we can lead them and they can follow in our footsteps,” Tangen said. “(Playing in the dome) is big for the ones who didn’t play last year. It’s different when you’re actually playing instead of being on the sidelines, and it’ll be fun for them.”

If the Larks want to get back to the state title game, they’ll have to shut down Kittson County Central’s big-play offense. The Bearcats average 43.2 points per game and have a couple of speedsters in their backfield in Fernando Blanco and Nick Kasprowicz, who run behind a physical blocking full-back in Carson Thorsteinson.

“They’re a balanced team and they’ve got a lot of weapons,” GM head coach Gary Sloan said. “They’re not going to pound it at you a whole lot, but the big plays are my biggest concern.”

When the Larks have the ball, they’ll look to do what they’ve done all season — use the run to set up the pass.

“We’re going to pound it at you and then try and mix in occasional pass,” Sloan said. “When we throw, hopefully we get a big play out of it.”

Last season the Superlarks won their state semifinal game 61-6 over South Ridge, but the Larks don’t have any illusions of that happening again.

“We’ll be the underdog for the rest of the way,” Bleifus said. “We can’t get a big head and think this game is going to be easy.”

While a lot of GM’s players didn’t play big roles on last year’s team, they’ve at least been on the field level at the Metrodome and have an idea of what to expect on Friday. Sloan said his team is coming in with the proper experience to be ready for the game.

“Last year we were maybe a little more awe-struck,” he said. “This year, I think we have the attitude that we have some unfinished business, and we’re going to try and finish it.”