“This was a great win for us,” said Maple Grove coach Adam Spurrell, a longtime assistant who was elevated to head coach early last spring when Matt Lombardi resigned after 12 seasons. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

This was exactly what Maple Grove needed.

Centennial, reloading after losing 16 seniors from its Class 6A state championship team of last season, did exactly what it has always done under head coach Mike Diggins. The Cougars, using hardnosed, battering-ram football, played highly touted, uber-talented Maple Grove to a stalemate through three quarters.

But that talent rose to the top in the fourth quarter, lifting Maple Grove to a 21-14 road victory.

“This was a great win for us,” said Maple Grove coach Adam Spurrell, a longtime assistant who was elevated to head coach early last spring when Matt Lombardi resigned after 12 seasons.

“It’s great for us because we’ve had things rather easy the first two weeks. We made some mistakes, and our mistakes hurt us. So to be able to overcome that was a good test.”

Twice Centennial, pounding away at the interior of the Maple Grove defensive line, took one-touchdown leads in the first half on touchdowns by running back Caleb Melser, who spent his evening softening the Maple Grove defense with hammer-like runs.

Maple Grove responded each time. The Crimson’s most important clap-back was a 9-yard scoring pass from quarterback Kaden Harney to two-play player Dylan Vokal with 18 seconds left before halftime.

“Getting a touchdown like that when they’re receiving the ball to start the second half is huge,” Vokal said. “We started the second half not in too much of a hole.”

Maple Grove got the game-winning touchdown when senior running back Chuck Langama scooted 21 yards down the sideline with 11:22 left in the game. Centennial had kept the typically explosive Langama in check until that run. He finished with 104 well-earned yards on the ground on 20 carries.

Centennial had the ball in Maple Grove territory and a chance to tie the game with 16 seconds left, but a desperate fourth-down pass by first-year starting quarterback Isaac Belinske-Strauss fell incomplete.

Maple Grove, No. 3 in the Class 6A rankings this week, improved to 3-0. Centennial fell to 1-2

“Honestly, I think this was the best thing that could have happened to us, just in preparing us for the next five to six weeks of the regular season,” Spurrell said. “If we would have walked through this, our tougher tests would be at the end of the season. Now these guys should hopefully be refocused for each week.”

Coaching a team of wet-behind-the-ears youngsters, Diggins knew his players missed a few opportunities, but he also knew the experience would pay dividends down the road.

“We have a lot of new kids in the lineup. Even if they’re seniors, they didn’t play last year,” he said. “These kids played so hard. I thought we got a lot better just this past week.”