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HARTINGTON - Wausa-Osmond turned three first-quarter touchdowns into its sixth win of the season against the Hartington-Newcastle Wildcats at Russ Hochstein Field Friday night.
The Vikings’ junior quarterback Mac Carlson had a hand in all three first-frame scores, well, actually legs in the TD’s, as he scored on runs of 47 and 4 yards in the opening 12 minutes to jump start his team and remain unbeaten on the season as the Wildcats dropped to 4-2.
“This all started last summer, the work we put in, lifting weights, working out, our line blocked really well tonight,” said Carlson who finished with 152 yards on the ground. “We still have work to do to get where we want to be at the end of the season. We ran the ball well tonight, but we can throw the ball as well. Hartington-Newcastle has a good pass defense so we wanted to come in here and run the ball.”
And his team did just that as teammate Matthew Schindler also reached the century mark on the ground with 121 yards and added a 67-yard kickoff return for a score to his night.
After Wausa-Osmond sprinted to the 18-6 lead in the first quarter, the Wildcats had an answer in the second and used a Jason Heimes 6-yard dash to the endzone with 6:19 left in the period to make it 18-12.
It took Schindler just 11 seconds to answer as he took the ensuing kickoff 67 yards the other way and after Carlson hit Lincoln Thorell on a conversion pass, the Vikings were back on top 26-12. “Hartington-Newcastle kind of put one on these guys last year so we were really focused coming into this game,” said Wausa Osmond coach Jon Baue. “We really prepared for this game and the kids really executed everything we talked about and did it well.”
“We just had too many let downs especially on special teams,” said Wildcat coach Rusty Fuller. “We dug ourselves a big hole in the first quarter and you just can’t do that against a really good team like Wausa-Osmond.”
HNS quarterback Austin Sudbeck hit Mason Krause for a 13-yard touchdown with 2:11 left in the third quarter to make it 34-18.
Carlson added a score early in the fourth to make it 42-18 after a Cody Bloomquist conversion run but the ‘Cats weren’t quite done.
Sudbeck hooked up with Brayden Lammers from 44 yards out to make it 42-24 with 2:52 left in the game.
