BY RICKY PETERSON, Jr.
KSHSAA Covered
CLAFLIN — Victoria's Wyatt Schmidtberger scored the game-winning touchdown in the final minute for a 22-20 victory, benefiting from crucial defensive penalties against the Oilers.
The Oilers led 20-16 when Richard Stroud scored on a 1-yard run with 45 seconds left. A spectacular 1-handed 45-yard reception by Central Plains’ Rylan Siemsen from Brodie Crites set up a go-ahead touchdown run from Richard Stroud, leaving Victoria 45 seconds to find its offensive spark.
“We were kind of nervous,” Victoria quarterback Wyatt Schmidberger said. “ We were like, ‘Man, we can't lose here.’ We just kind of got in our heads. Then we regrouped.”
Aided by two Oiler penalties, the Knights needed 18 seconds to respond, scoring the game-winning touchdown on a 23-yard run by Schmidberger.
“I'm happy for Wyatt,” Victoria coach Doug Oberle said. “He didn't have the greatest game throughout. We could not throw the ball very well, and there's a lot of stuff involved with that. But for him to come back and answer in that moment was huge for him.”
Victoria’s defense then sealed a 22-20 victory with a sack as the Knights’ won their seventh straight matchup against Central Plains.
Schmidtberger burst through a huge hole on the right side on his scamper, which was the Knights’ first touchdown since the first quarter.
“I was either going to run it or pitch it. I saw a hole and, ‘I'm going to take this,’ ” Schmidberger said. “To get that touchdown was absolutely amazing. It's all credit to my line.”
Victoria roared ahead 16-0 on back-to-back 13- and 39-yard touchdown runs by Weston Scherrer. The Oilers rallied with three consecutive touchdowns started by Stroud's 4-yard scoring pass from Crites.
Victoria rushed for 270 yards. Crites threw for 259 yards, but were held to 8 yards rushing on 24 attempts. Siemsen had 110 yards receiving and Stroud 102 yards.
Victoria (2-0) opened with touchdown drives on runs of 13 and 39 yards by Weston Scherrer. Central Plains (1-1) spent the next three and a half quarters clawing its way back into the game behind a potent passing attack from Crites.
“Our guys battled so hard. Made some hellacious plays,” said Central Plains coach J.D. Johnson. “We dug ourselves into too deep of a hole. Against a Doug Oberle team, that's just something you can't do.”
The Oilers got on the board early in the second quarter when quarterback Brodie Crites flipped a 4-yard touchdown pass to Stroud to make it 16-6. Central Plains crept to within two in the third quarter after Crites hit Siemsen for a 43-yard TD and the two connected again on the two-point try.
With just over a minute left and fourth-and-long, Siemsen sent the crowd into a frenzy with a diving, one-handed catch for a 45-yard gain to the 1. Stroud’s ensuing touchdown run gave the Oilers a 20-16 lead.
“Siemsen made an unbelievable catch,” Oberle said. “We kept the faith and believed, and that's part of our mantra.”
Central Plains committed a personal foul on the final kickoff. The Oilers committed a pass interference call before Schmidtberger's game-winner.
“Mental mistakes,” Johnson said. “We're going to learn from it. We're going to learn from it and be better as the season goes. This one's going to sting for a while, but we're going to use it as fuel for the rest of the season to know that it was ours.”
Central Plains’ last-ditch effort was derailed by Victoria pressure. Scherrer’s sack closed out the battle of last year’s state runner-ups (Central Plains in Eight-Player Division I and Victoria in Division II).
Crites finished with 246 yards through the air with two touchdowns and two interceptions but the Oilers’ only had 8 yards on the ground against Victoria’s stalwart D-line, anchored by senior Kyle Huser.
Wyatt Scherrer ran for 102 yards and the two early touchdowns for Victoria.
Johnson liked the fight in the Oilers.
“The guys made a big step,” Johnson said. “I was obviously very nervous coming into this game. I know what Doug's teams can do and what they always do. Our boys showed how tough they are.”
Victoria 16 0 0 6 — 22
Central Plains 0 6 0 14 — 20
V—Weston Scherrer 13 run (Wyatt Schmidtberger run); V—Scherrer 39 run (Scherrer run); CP—Richard Stroud 4 pass from Crites (pass fails); CP—Rylan Siemsen 44 pass from Crites (Siemsen pass from Crites); CP—Stroud 1 run (pass fails); V—Schmidtberger 38'run (run fails)
RUSHING—V—42-270; Scherrer 12-102; CP—24-8; Crites.
PASSING—CP—Crites 20-34-2, 259.
RECEIVING—CP—Siemsen 4-110; Stroud 10-102; Klima 2-28; Keeton Robison 3-12
