#3 Victoria Stays Unbeaten After Win at Wilson
WILSON-Thaddeus Wohler rushed for 126 yards and three touchdowns and passed for another score as the third-ranked Victoria Knights survived an early scare and ran past Wilson 52-6 Friday evening in 8-Man Division ll District 5 action.
After the opening kickoff went out of bounds, Victoria elected to begin their opening drive at their own 20-yard line. On the Knights' second play from scrimmage, Wohler bolted up the far sideline for a 50-yard score for an early 6-0 lead after the missed two-point conversion. However, the Dragons who were shut out by Victoria at home last season 57-0 showed some fight of their own on their first drive.
Quarterback Connor Charvat broke free on a 36-yard touchdown run to pull Wilson even. The Dragons missed a chance to take the lead when they missed the two-point conversion and from that point on, Victoria turned up their game another notch. Carson Werth, who ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown in last week's victory over Central Plains took the ensuing kick 75 yards for a score after an initial bobble and the Knights were back in front 12-6.
Victoria then drove 74 yards in four plays on their next possession with Wohler scampering 52 yards for his second touchdown to pad Victoria's advantage to 18-6 at the end of the first quarter. Wohler found the end zone again on the next Knight drive from 10 yards out and with the successful two-point play Victoria was in front 26-6.
After a botched punt set up Victoria deep in Wilson territory, Victoria would need one play for their next touchdown which was the result of a 24-yard pass from Wohler to Seth Schwien who made a juggling catch in the end zone for a 32-6 advantage. Lane Schmidtberger continued the Victoria blitz with a pair of nine-yard scoring runs and the last score of the game occurred when Chase Schumacher returned a fumble off another botched punt 10 yards for a touchdown.
Victoria (5-0, 2-0), which won its 15th consecutive regular season road game dating back to 2018, rolled up 244 yards of total offense including 198 on the ground. Behind Wohler, Schmidtberger gained 41 yards on three carries. The Victoria defense also stiffened after the first drive holding Wilson (1-4, 0-1) to just 71 yards, 60 of them rushing.
Victoria will step out of district play next Friday, October 14 with a long trip to Sharon Springs to face Wallace County while Wilson travels north for their annual rivalry game at Sylvan-Lucas.