In the first quarter of Marshall’s 21-9 victory over Totino-Grace in the Class 4A state quarterfinals Thursday, Tigers senior quarterback Levi Maeyaert tossed a rare interception. But he didn’t have to wait very long to make amends.

Minutes later, Maeyaert snagged an interception of his own while playing defensive back. That’s just how Marshall head coach Terry Bahlmann likes it.

While some teams might judge two-way players more by their offensive strengths — isn’t it great we have a quarterback who can play in the secondary and a running back who can make an open-field tackle? — Bahlmann looks at it the opposite way.

What a bonus it is that senior linebacker Andrew Stelter, who entered Thursday’s game with 55 total tackles, can also rush for two touchdowns and catch another to beat the Eagles at Blaine.

“We put our guys on defense first and build our offense after that,” said Bahlmann, whose son, Brad, is the Tigers’ defensive coordinator. “The schemes we run are very sophisticated for high school, and we have a lot of smart guys out there.”

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Marshall’s defense — which has conceded more than a single touchdown only twice, and never more than two — has helped the undefeated Tigers (11-0) through a regular season full of ranked opponents to a top seed in the 4A tournament and back to the state semifinals, where they lost to eventual 4A champion Becker 22-7 last year.

Seeking their program’s first state title, the Tigers will play a rematch against the team that Stelter said was their toughest defensive assignment all season: Orono. Marshall won the teams’ early October matchup 13-12, the fewest points either team scored all season.

The Tigers haven’t needed to win a back-and-forth, high-scoring shootout; they limited their prior opponents to 74 rushing yards per game. But if they ever need to, they have an arsenal of dangerous backs, led by Stelter.

He’s both the Tigers’ leading rusher and receiver, and on Thursday night scored in each of the game’s first three quarters, rushing for 4-yard and 35-yard touchdowns on the ground and catching a 16-yard touchdown pass. That put him at 25 touchdowns on the season.

“As a sophomore, he caught the ball a lot for us and played outside linebacker. Now he’s grown and matured into the tailback and inside linebacker for us,” Bahlmann said of Stelter, who even had a stint kicking for the team earlier this season. “He’s our leader. He’s our go-to, and when we need something, we like to get the ball to Andrew, and good things usually happen.”

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Stelter’s first rushing touchdown, coming on the Tigers’ game-opening drive, was nearly a 68-yard tear up the field, and the Marshall fans who made the three-hour drive from southwest Minnesota celebrated like it was, but he was ruled down on the 1-yard line.

“I feel like I deserve to be down at the 1 for getting caught,” Stelter said. About his fellow backs, sophomores Sam Meier and Milo Swenson and senior Tyler Kraft, he added, “It really helps to know that I don’t have to do everything. We have multiple options to keep our offense dangerous.”

On the defensive side of the ball, senior linebacker Tyson Louwagie entered Thursday’s game with a team-high 58 total tackles, and senior defensive end JR Vierstraete set the school’s career record for sacks and tackles for loss this year, running his total to 28.

Totino-Grace managed to get on the board with a field goal by senior Luke Brandt to end the first half and a 59-yard score by junior Ben Bergan in the game’s final two minutes.

“[The defense], we know each other pretty well, so our chemistry is good, and we know where each other is going to be,” Vierstraete said. “On defense, you just got to trust each other.”

Totino-Grace (6-5), making its 27th trip to state hoping for an 11th state title, was another battle-tested but relatively young team. After freshman quarterback Henry Cone picked up an injury in the Eagles’ 35-7 section title win over Fridley, sophomore Matthew Quinn made his first start under center against Marshall.

“They’re big, they’re physical, they’re fast. They’re just well coached, too,” Eagles coach Jay Anderson said of the Marshall defense. “It’s very, very hard to move the ball, and other teams have seen that, too.”