For the Martin County West football program, the trip to Springfield has become a familiar one.
Dating back to last season, four of MCW’s last 13 games have been against Springfield, all in Springfield.
In 2022, the Tigers defeated the Maverick 14-8 in Week 7 of the regular season and 21-7 in the Section 3A semifinals.
This season, Springfield downed Martin County West 50-0 in Week 7. The teams will meet in the Section 3A quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Riverside Park.
In the stretch where they’ve played four games in Springfield, the Mavericks have played six games on their home field in Sherburn. They’ve also played once each at Canby, Tracy and Wabasso.
MCW is 3-5 on the season and seeded sixth. Springfield (7-1) is seeded third.
To close out the regular season after playing on Oct. 11, Martin County West lost 8-6 at home to St. James Area and Springfield won 55-15 at Windom.
Also on that side of the bracket Tuesday, seventh-seeded Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (2-6) is at second-seeded Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (7-1).
On the other side of the bracket, eighth-seeded Wabasso (0-8) is at top-seeded Sleepy Eye United (6-2) and fifth-seeded Murray County Central (4-4) goes to fourth-seeded Adrian/Ellsworth (6-2).
The semifinals are Saturday, Oct. 28 at the site of the higher-seeded team and the championship game is Friday, Nov. 3 at Southwest Minnesota State University.
Springfield is the defending section champion and went on to finish second in the state Class 1A tournament.
SECTION 3A FOOTBALL
Tuesday, Oct. 24
Quarterfinals
Number in parenthesis indicates seed number
Wabasso (8) at Sleepy Eye United (1)
Murray County Central (5) at Adrian/Ellsworth (4)
Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (7) at Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (2)
Martin County West (6) at Springfield (3)
Saturday, Oct. 28
Semifinals
At higher seed
All games at 3 p.m.
Wabasso-Sleepy Eye winner vs. MCC-AE winner, 3 p.m.
RTR-TMB winner vs. MCW-Springfield winner, 3 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 3
Championship
At SMSU
Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.