INDIANAPOLIS — There was a time in his life that former Gophers tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford wasn’t the biggest fan of blocking. He starred at receiver growing up in St. Cloud, Minn., and enjoyed scoring touchdowns himself rather than paving the way for others.

That’s why a particular answer on Thursday at the NFL Combine was so revealing. Asked if he could call any play in the playbook, Spann-Ford had no hesitation saying he would run inside zone. Why call a run up the middle rather than, say, a pass to himself?

“When I was at Minnesota, that was our statement play,” Spann-Ford said. “You can set the tone for the whole game with that play.”

Not long after arriving on the U campus as a teenager, Spann-Ford officially switched from receiver to tight end. He learned the fundamentals of blocking from other players before him while simultaneously growing into his body. He slowly started to fall in love with that part of the game as he got better and better at it.

It never bothered him that he rarely got the glory.

“It’s about winning games,” Spann-Ford said. “It’s not about my personal needs. It’s about the team’s personal needs. That’s all I was focused on throughout my college career, and look forward to doing that in the NFL as well.”

Still, as much as Spann-Ford takes pride in being deployed as a blocker, he knows he can shine as a pass catcher in the NFL given the opportunity. Let’s just say his massive 6-foot-7, 270-pound frame lends itself to being a red-zone target. He could emerge as a matchup nightmare in the right situation.

“Just being able to go up top to go get the football,” Spann-Ford said.  It wasn’t necessarily something I was needed for in our offense, so I’m excited to show that at the next level.”

It will be interesting to see which team takes a chance on him in the 2024 draft. He met with the Vikings a couple of times at the Senior Bowl last month. He grew up cheering for them as a kid and was actually in he building when former star running back Adrian Peterson broke the NFL rookie rushing record.

What would it mean if the Vikings selected him in this year’s draft?

“It’d definitely be a dream come true,” Spann-Ford said. “It’d be awesome.”

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MIDDLETON, Wis. — River Falls followed its game plan almost to perfection.

It wasn’t enough.

The Wildcats withstood an early barrage and went into the final period even, but Fond du Lac Springs punched home the eventual game-winner with just under seven minutes remaining for a 2-1 victory in the Division 2 semifinals of the Wisconsin boys hockey state tournament Thursday afternoon.

“I thought we played a great game today,” River Falls coach Cam Wilken said. “We did everything, executed our game plan. We kept it tight. We wanted to see if we could kind of wear them down in the third period, and we did. They had pot luck tonight.”

Second-seeded Springs (19-9) advanced to Saturday morning’s title game against defending champion New Richmond (17-9-2), an 8-4 winner over Tomahawk in the first semifinal.

Third-seeded River Falls (14-14) was making its first trip to state since its only other appearance in 1997.

After a scoreless first period, each team tallied a power-play goal in the second stanza, taking a 1-1 tie into the third period.

With River Falls junior goalie Luke Linehan registering 34 saves through two periods, and overtime looking more like a possibility, Armani Fisher kept the puck to himself on a 3-on-2 break and punched it past Linehan from the high slot to put the Ledgers up 2-1 just past the 10-minute mark.

“I just saw the defenseman in front of me, and I saw the goalie was kind of cheating to the left side a little bit. So I shot through a screen to the upper right side,” Fisher said.

In the tightly contested defensive struggle, that turned out to be enough.

Linehan finished with 38 saves, while Brendan Gaertig had 27 stops for Springs, which got hot after starting the season 3-7.

“At the end of the day, it’s not really how any one of us plays, it’s how all of us play,” said Linehan, who turned away numerous tough shots and breakaways. “I think we played a really good game.”

After 27 first-period saves by Linehan, the Ledgers finally broke through on a power-play goal by Fisher at 4:39 of the second period.

Andrew Amundson brought the Wildcats even at 8:57 of the second period with a power-play goal from the right circle after a faceoff.

The Ledgers were assessed a five-minute major penalty for boarding at the 9:41 mark, but River Falls failed to capitalize, managing just four shots with the advantage.

River Falls salvaged a scoreless tie after one period despite being outshot 21-7. The Wildcats killed a five-minute penalty with Linehan registering eight saves during the onslaught.

“We felt good, because we had him (Linehan) in the net,” Wilken said. “We knew that was part of their game, and we talked about how the first period was probably going to be more in Springs’ favor. They wanted to push the envelope right away. We’re not built for a team to be in an 8-6 track meet.

“We were doing everything that we could that we planned for and practiced for to play in this game,” he said. “We just didn’t get the bounce we needed to. There’s not a whole heck of a lot I would have said or done differently. We just didn’t get to be on the right side of the scoreboard.”

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By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge held veteran investigative reporter Catherine Herridge in civil contempt on Thursday for refusing to divulge her source for a series of Fox News stories about a Chinese American scientist who was investigated by the FBI but never charged.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington imposed a fine of $800 per day until Herridge complies, but the fine will not go into effect immediately to give her time to appeal.

Cooper wrote that he “recognizes the paramount importance of a free press in our society” and the critical role of confidential sources in investigative journalism. But the judge said the court “also has its own role to play in upholding the law and safeguarding judicial authority.”

“Herridge and many of her colleagues in the journalism community may disagree with that decision and prefer that a different balance be struck, but she is not permitted to flout a federal court’s order with impunity,” wrote Cooper, who was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama.

A lawyer for Herridge, Patrick Philbin, declined to comment.

The source is being sought by Yanpin Chen, who has sued the government over the leak of details about the federal probe into statements she made on immigration forms related to work on a Chinese astronaut program.

Herridge, who was recently laid off by CBS News, published an investigative series for Fox News in 2017 that examined Chen’s ties to the Chinese military and raised questions about whether the scientist was using a professional school she founded in Virginia to help the Chinese government get information about American servicemembers.

The stories relied on what her lawyers contend were items leaked from the probe, including snippets of an FBI document summarizing an interview conducted during the investigation, personal photographs, and information taken from her immigration and naturalization forms and from an internal FBI PowerPoint presentation.

Chen sued the FBI and Justice Department in 2018, saying her personal information was selectively leaked to “smear her reputation and damage her livelihood.”

The judge had ordered Herridge in August to answer questions about her source or sources in a deposition with Chen’s lawyers. The judge ruled that Chen’s need to know for the sake of her lawsuit overcomes Herridge’s right to shield her source, despite the “vital importance of a free press and the critical role” that confidential sources play in journalists’ work.