Mounds View entered the month of October with a 3-10-1 record that left the team unsure of how to turn their season around in time for Class 2A, Section 5 play. Despite their struggles, the Mustangs made no adjustments for the playoffs, deciding to simply stick to their gameplan and battle through adversity.

Given the eighth-seed, Mounds View narrowly escaped a play-in game with No. 9 Osseo, upset top-seeded and fourth-ranked Park Center in the quarterfinals and beat No. 5 Roseville to make it back to the section championship game for a third straight year.

“I have no idea how we turned it around in such a crazy section this year. We’re just glad we could pull it out of the bag,” Till Konczak said following the 4-3 victory over the Panthers at Spring Lake Park High School Thursday night.

Mounds View (9-10-1) trailed 2-1 at the half and struggled to find the back of Spring Lake Park’s net before a three-goal scoring binge in the span of five minutes helped propel the Mustangs to their first state tournament berth since 2010.

“After we went down I was honestly scared,” Konczak said, following his two-goal game. “But it turned out just the way we wanted to and shows the spirit of the team coming back the way that we did.”

Class 2A, Section 5 was an anomaly to section seeding, with every quarterfinal game ending in an upset last Thursday.

Both Mounds View coach Chris Scanlan and the seventh-seeded Panthers coach Ryan Manning said that every program walked away from the seeding meeting feeling confident about their matchups.

Manning added the confidence from all sides was a  testament to not only the section, but also the Northwest Suburban Conference, which seven teams play in during the regular season.

Mounds View, however, was pummeled in the Suburban East Conference, posting 10 consecutive winless games before winning their final two regular season contests.

After losing 16 seniors from last year, Scanlan said that it took some time for the Mustangs back line and goalkeeper, Jason Min, to get acquainted this season, since they had never played with each other.

Min and company seemed plenty acquainted as they defended the 6-yard box from an onslaught of set-piece threats after Freddy Fernandez converted a penalty to bring Spring Lake Park (7-10-2)  within a goal with two minutes left in the game.

At the final whistle, the Mustangs rushed the Mounds View student section to celebrate the end of a three-year losing streak in the section championship game.

“I’ve been in the section finals two years,” Till said. “The entire season we said our motto was ‘Road to the Bank’ we always wanted to go to (U.S. Bank Stadium) and it’s honestly a dream come true for the team.”

Till Konczak scored twice to propel Mounds View to their first state tournament berth since 2010 following a 4-3 win over Spring Lake Park in the Class 2A, Section 5 championship at Spring Lake Park High School.

Konczak notched the No. 8-seeded Mustangs’ first goal off a free kick and cemented Mounds View’s victory by scoring with eight minutes remaining.

The Mustangs (9-10-1) trailed 2-1 at the half after goals by Marco Corona and Cullen Anderson, but battled back to produce three goals in the second frame, clinching the section title.

Freddy Fernandez scored off a penalty kick with less than three minutes left in the game but Mounds View was able to hold off a late Panthers rush.

Jason Min had eight saves in net for the Mustangs while Andrew Dahl stopped 11 shots for seventh-seeded Spring Lake Park (7-10-2).