Holton 48,  Royal Valley 15

The Holton offense proved to be nearly unstoppable again scoring on all but one drive for the second straight week in route to a district, league and county rival win at Royal Valley.  The Wildcats (4-1) have now won four consecutive and the week five victory was number 250 for Coach Brooks Barta in his 27th season at Holton. An average of more than nine wins per season. 

The Wildcats came in missing their top three senior runningbacks and also a starting lineman, but had multiple players step in and increase the Holton season rushing average to more than 10 yards per carry. Tucker Gilliland moved into the starting lineup and ran for 104 yards on just 7 carries including runs of 49 yards to set up the first touchdown and then a 39-yard TD run himself. Jace Boswell moved from fullback to start at the other tailback spot and scored on 4 of his 9 carries on the night while totaling 119 yards rushing. Quarterback Matthew Lierz added 85 yards including a 57-yard TD in the third period as Holton moved to 2-0 in the district. 

After having an 81 yard kickoff return for a touchdown called back because of penalty, Eli Hallauer scored the final Holton touchdown of the night with a four-yard run to make it 48-8 early in the fourth frame. Holton will play a non-district game at Rossville next week.  

Royal Valley ran the ball 56 times for 221 yards but their first drive ended with a fumble, second drive resulted in a blocked field goal try to fall behind 14-0. Still, the Panthers got a 34-yard scramble by Aidan McKinsey to set up his one-yard score that made it 14-6 and it looked like Royal Valley could go to the locker room down only 21-8 and set to get the ball to start the third quarter, but a failed fourth down near midfield left the Wildcats a chance to score and they did following a 26 yard pass from Lierz to Charlie Gilliland and then a Boswell 22-yard run to make it 28-8 at the break. 

Jamison Shane led the Panthers with 73 yards on 18 carries and Carter Gieger scored a five yard TD late in the fourth stanza for the final margin.  RV falls to 1-4 on the season with their first district contests and will play at Hayden next week.