The atmosphere was one to remember tonight at the Axtell Eagles' field in their dominant 58-12 win over the Hanover Wildcats. I can’t express enough how incredibly blown away I was seeing the sizeable crowd of hundreds and the new digital scoreboard brought onto the field this season for Axtell. The momentum and energy were ecstatic for the Eagles, and they helped them in this impressive senior night home game win over Hanover. This match-up was not only a step forward to take the lead in 8M-ll District 3 standings but the Twin Valley League standings. 

The opening drive started on the Axtell Eagles’ 15-yard line, and in just four minutes and three seconds, the Eagles were up on the board 8-0. The opening touchdown consisted of the Eagle's only third down of the night (fourth of the year), they converted the 3rd and ten from their 32-yard line for a 30+ yard completion, and the drive was capped off by a 4-yard rushing touchdown by Brandon Schmelzie. The first drive by Hanover trying to respond resulted in a three-play drive that ended with a fumble, setting up Axtell on Hanover’s 24-yard line. Axtell scored and went up 14-0 with a touchdown pass from Schmelzle to Landon Schmitz, failing the two-point conversation. The Wildcats were able to put a solid drive together on their second possession and ended it with a 1-yard rushing touchdown off a quarterback sneak from Kadrick Cohorst. The Wildcats used three quarterbacks tonight, with Cohorst just being one of three, the others primarily being Rieken Stallbaumer and Braylon Myne. 

The second quarter began with Axtell leading 14-6 with the ball in their hands, and they extended the lead off another touchdown from the KU commit, Brandon Schmelzle, from 14 yards out, making it 22-6. The Axtell Eagles would go on to snag three more scores consecutively to make it a 44-6 game. In the scoring stretch, Schmelzle had a 59-yard rushing touchdown, Schmelzle also had a 29-yard passing touchdown to Eli Broxterman, and the final touchdown that Axtell put up in the stretch, was an interception returned for a touchdown by Joe Lybarger. Before the half could completely end, however, Alec Jueneman capped a three-play, no more than a thirty-second scoring drive to cut it within 44-12 on a 59-yard touchdown run. Before the half completely ended, Brandon Schmelzle had his final touchdown of the game to make it 52-12 off a 39-yard touchdown run.

The second half opened up with just three plays from the Hanover Wildcats and resulted in the endgame with yet another interception return for a touchdown, this time from Eli Broxterman. The interception sealed the game 58-12, and it marked Hanover’s third turnover in the game, Hanover also failed to convert a fourth down early on in the second quarter and punted once on their fourth possession. 

Brandon Schmelzle finished as the player of the game with six touchdowns split into four rushing and two passing. Unofficially, he also had 14 carries for 189 yards and went 10 of 12 passing for 140 yards. 

The Eagles, with this victory, improve to 4-0 in league play, 3-0 in the district, and 7-0 overall. They are looking forward to traveling next week to face their final opponent of the year in yet another league and district match-up, Frankfort. The Wildcats will finish up their season and league play next week against the Linn Bulldogs; However, Hanover finishes 3-1 in the district for the year. 

Axtell’s state-leading win streak continues at 46 now and is third best in the nation amongst all classifications but number one in all of 8-man.