With the top-two ranked teams in the state’s large-school class looking to end the other’s season, mistakes can be magnified.

Such was the case for Lakeville North on Friday.

A miscue deep in its own end resulted in Dominic Heim scoring twice in the second quarter, the Eagles had a lengthy second-half drive for a score, and Eden Prairie beat Lakeville North 21-3 in a Class 6A quarterfinal Friday at Spring Lake Park.

“That’s a good football team. I don’t know what else to say,” said Lakeville North coach Brian Vossen.

Next up for top-ranked Eden Prairie (11-0) is a state semifinal with Lake Conference foe Edina Nov. 17 in U.S. Bank Stadium. It’s a rematch from Week 2 when Eden Prairie beat Edina 36-14.

Lakeville South, which rallied to beat East Ridge 35-34 Friday, meets Centennial in a Thursday Class 6A semifinal.

The Eagles were at their best on a 16-play drive that chewed up more than 10 minutes and culminated in a 3-yard run from Jeremy Frederichs early in the fourth quarter for a game-clinching score. Eden Prairie converted a pair of fourth downs on a drive with zero plays gaining double-digit yardage.

“We kept coming, kept persevering, kept running the ball,” said coach Mike Grant. “Our O-line is really good. They’re really good, and they’re really smart.”

Eden Prairie converted three of its four fourth-down opportunities in the game.

“You can’t ask for a better O-line. It’s easy to play running back when you’re not even touched until you have a linebacker or a safety. Those are tackles I’m expected to break,” said Heim.

The Panthers (9-2) later jumped offsides on a fourth-and-5 with three minutes left to give Eden Prairie another first down.

“It just seemed on both sides of the ball we couldn’t get to a place where we capitalized,” said Vossen. “We stopped them on a couple, then we just ran out of juice.”

On a fourth-and-2 at the Lakeville North 19 midway through the second quarter, Helm went left and untouched to the front corner pylon for a 7-3 lead.

A subsequent three-and-out by Lakeville North got worse when its punter dropped the ball and, while picking it up, touched the turf with his knee.

Heim scored from the 2 four plays later and added a two-point conversion — after the Panthers jumped offsides moving the ball halfway to the goal line — for a 15-3 Eden Prairie lead.

“That’s huge. That’s like game momentum-wise,” Heim said.

Eden Prairie’s offensive line was dominant right away as the Eagles marched down the field on their opening drive, only to be stopped on a fourth-down double handoff at the 2.

On the first play of the second quarter, Sawyer Wilkie gained nine yards on a fourth-and-4 to keep a Lakeville North drive alive. Drew Kolander made a 30-yard field goal one play after Panthers lineman Michael Anderson fell on a fumble to maintain possession.

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With the ball in freshman guard Cam Christie’s hands in the closing seconds of the Gophers’ victory over the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners on Friday night at Williams Arena, the game’s outcome had long been decided, and the verdict was already in on Christie’s Gophers debut.

But with this team sitting on 99 points, Christie didn’t really have much choice. He let go a 3-pointer that found the bottom of the net — his fourth 3 of the game — adding an exclamation point to the Gophers’ 102-76 victory.

Christie, a 6-foot-6 guard from suburban Chicago, who missed the Gophers’ season-opening win over Bethune-Cookman due to illness, finished with 18 points and a big smile on his face.

“I had an idea,”  Gophers coach Ben Johnson said with a smile when asked if he knew Christie was going to shoot. “To his credit, I also knew he wasn’t going to force it. So it was good that he kind of got it in the rhythm and the flow of what we are trying to do.

“He didn’t just go and jack it. But, again, I think it’s how we’ve practiced, and how we’ve preached taking good shots and letting the ball move. There was a carryover of that tonight.”

What made Christie’s performance that much more impressive is the act that he has had little practice time due to the illness.

“It was rough to miss the scrimmage and the first two games,” he said. “My teammates did a good job of keeping me included, and I just had to stay confident in myself.

“I was cleared last Thursday and it was good to get back into the swing of things. And then it was good to get back out there.”

Johnson said he saw enough from Christie in practice to know that he was ready to contribute.

“He took good shots, shots that he’s taken in practice,” Johnson said. “He was playing with pace, and he didn’t really try to force the issue. He’s  good shooter, and he made them.”

The Gophers were without center Pharrel Payne, who Johnson said “tweaked” a foot injury he has been dealing with. Isaiah Ihnen took his place in the starting lineup, and all he  did was score 20 points on 7-for-7 shooting, including 5-for-5 from 3-point range.

Ihnen has made his way back after missing the past two seasons due to knee injuries.

“He’s a good player,” Johnson said. “The guy lives in the gym, sand his work ethic and getting up shots is second to none on our team. We preach to him, if you get your feet set the right ones are going to go in because they’re the right ones.”

Ihnen is just thrilled to be back on the floor.

“It’s surreal,” he said. “I’ve been out for two years and I didn’t know if there would ever be the day I would be back out here playing in a Gopher jersey. So just being out there and being able to compete, and to have the confidence of my coaches, there’s nothing that compares to that feeling.”

Junior forward Dawson Garcia, who led the Gophers with 23 points and 14 rebounds in the win over Bethune-Cookman, had another strong game, with 22 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks.

The Gophers took control of the game midway through the first half and led 54-30 at the intermission. Christie entered the game with the Gophers up 9-7. He missed his first shot but then rattled off three consecutive 3s to give the Gophers a 24-14 lead.

The Gophers limited the Roadrunners to 30.6 percent shooting in the first half and 40.8 percent for the game, allowing their opponent to few uncontested shots.

“We took some steps forward (defensively),” Johnson said. “We aren’t going to score 100 points every night, so we have to defend. We have very capable defensive players. we have to be able to rely on that.

“It’s a work in progress.”

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BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Wild got captain Jared Spurgeon back on Friday, but no one player is going to change the narrative for Minnesota, which finally got a decent start only to watch another mistake turn into the go-ahead goal.

J.J. Peterka scored twice, and his steal at the blue line led to Jeff Skinner’s go-ahead goal on a breakaway early in the third period as the Buffalo Sabres held off the Wild, 3-2, at KeyCenter Arena.

Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek scored power-play goals, but the Wild ended their three-game trip through New York with consecutive losses. They lost to the Rangers on Thursday when a Brock Faber pinch turned into a three-on-one go-ahead goal in a 4-1 loss at Madison Square Garden.

This time, Jonas Brodin dropped a pass back to Kaprizov at the Sabres’ blue line late in the second period with the game tied 1-1. Kaprizov reared back to send the puck deep, but Peterka poked it away before it got to him.

That sent Peterka and Jeff Skinner the other way, and Skinner beat Filip Gustavsson left side to make it 2-1. Peterka buried a one-timer off a rush early in the third period for a 3-1 lead the Wild couldn’t match.

Eriksson Ek pulled the Wild within a goal on a power play with 7:33 remaining, the 100th goal of his career. But Minnesota, which pulled Gustavsson with just under two minutes remaining, could never catch up.

Gustavsson made 26 saves.

Spurgeon, playing his first game since being injured in a preseason game on Oct. 5, deflected a pass off the post in the final seconds, but Devon Levi made 31 saves for the Sabres, who improved to 6-1-1 against the Wild in the teams’ last eight meetings.

After 18 minutes of back-and-forth chances, the Sabres broke the seal when Henri Jokiharju sent a wrist shot from the high slot through traffic to beat a screened Gustavsson for a 1-0 lead at 18:02.

It was the 22nd first-period goal the Wild have surrendered this season, most in the NHL, but this time they answered. With 1:26 left in the period, Ryan Johnson was penalized for cross-checking Ryan Hartman, and the Wild began their second power play.

The teams went to a faceoff in the Sabres’ zone with 37.7 seconds left, and Joel Eriksson Ek won the draw. Mats Zuccarello corralled it and passed to Matt Boldy, who turned and sent a cross between the circles to an open Kaprizov, who one-timed in through the pads of a diving Devon Levi to tie the game 1-1 at 19:30.

The Wild nearly added another goal before the period ended when Eriksson Ek skated a puck to the crease and pulled it back before trying to stuff it into a corner from behind the net. It was a good scoring chance, and the center banged his stick on the ice after the buzzer sounded.

The second period played out in similar fashion, the teams trading blows without luck until the last two minutes, when a big play by Paterka started a breakaway finished by Jeff Skinner after the Wild had just won a draw in Buffalo’s end.

Brock Faber corralled the puck and sent it cross ice to Brodin on the left board. The defenseman moved a soft pass back to the blue line for Kaprizov, but Peterka poked it away — and forward — as Kaprizov was winding up to send the puck deep. Skinner took control and skated at Gustavsson.

When the goalie committed, Skinner went to his left and skid the puck into the left corner between the post and Gustavsson skate for a 2-1 lead at 19:02.

Buffalo quickly built on that lead in the third period, which started with more than a minute of power play time for the Sabres because Kaprizov was called for interference late in the second period.

The Wild killed that power play, but a couple of minutes later, Tage Thompson skated hard out of his zone and past the Wild’s blue line and dropped the puck to Skinner. He sent it back to Thompson down behind the goal, and he zipped a pass to the crease, where Peterka was waiting for a one-timer.

That made it 3-1 Buffalo at 3:33.

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