#2 Victoria Rolls to District Title With Shutout of Hodgeman County

JETMORE-Wyatt Griffin rushed for 102 yards and three touchdowns and passed for 120 yards and another score as second-ranked Victoria cruised past Hodgeman County 46-0 to win the 8-Man Division ll District title at Sayler Field.

The Knights won the coin toss and elected to receive and they drove 65 yards in eight plays and capped it off on a one-yard run by Griffin and Victoria led 8-0 with the two-point conversion.  Hodgeman County then drove to the Victoria 14-yard line before backup Quarterback Hazen Rydquist fumbled a snap and Weston Scherrer picked up the ball for Victoria and returned the miscue 66 yards for a touchdown to expand the Knights' lead to 16-0 after the two-point play.

The Knights then immediately got the ball back after recovering an onsides kick and droves 44 yards in six plays with Matt Pfeifer scoring from one yard out and the two-point conversion gave Victoria a commanding 24-0 advantage after the first quarter.

Griffin then scored two more touchdowns in the second quarter on runs of 63 and four yards and both two-point conversions were successful to make the score 40-0 in favor of Victoria.

After Wyatt Schmidtberger intercepted an Eagle pass, the Knights appeared ready to shut the game down by halftime with one more score.  The outcome was temporarily delayed when Griffin was intercepted by Hodgeman County's Talon Shank in the end zone with 1:39 left in the second quarter.  Moments later however, Wesley Sander intercepted Reece, giving the Knights one more chance to wrap up the game and this time they were successful as Griffin connected with Ethan VonLintel from four yards out on a fourth and two play as time expired to provide the final margin of 46-0 after a five-play, 51-yard drive.

Victoria (8-0, 4-0) rolled up 281 yards of total offense.  VonLintel led all receivers with three catches for 59 yards and the walk-off touchdown.

The Knights defense which has given up just 46 points all season registered its fourth shutout and held Hodgeman County (6-2, 3-1) to 124 yards of total offense.

Victoria, won its fifth consecutive District championship and will be the #1 seed out of District 6, hosting Fairfield in the first round of the playoffs on Thursday, October 31 at 7 p.m.  Hodgeman County is the #2 seed and will be home against Norwich for their first round contest.