It was a good old fashioned ground and pound beatdown in Columbus on Friday night, as the Wildcats took down the Wapello Indians by a 51-14 final score at home. Columbus started the ballgame on defense, where they set the tone early with a Riley Kaalberg sack to force a punting situation. Then, on the first drive of the game for Columbus, they marched 45 yards in seven plays to take a 7-0 lead on an 18-yard Riley Kaalberg touchdown run on 4th and 5. The ensuing kickoff was fumbled by Wapello, and Columbus’s Fritz Figaro was johnny on the spot for the Wildcats to recover on the Indian 20-yard line. From there, it only took three plays for Columbus to reach the end zone again, when Tyson Kaalberg crossed the goal line from six yards out to give the Wildcats a 13-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. After another forced punt, Trevor Phillips and the rest of the Columbus offense went back to work, notching a 9-play, 69-yard drive to stretch their lead to 20-0. However, chunk plays from Wapello helped the Indians crawl back into things before halftime, with quarterback Rowen Atkinson finding Grant Wilson for an 18-yard touchdown as well as Garrett Cooley for a 47-yard score. Right before halftime, Columbus was able to find pay dirt again when Riley Kaalberg nosed his way in from four yards away to make it a 27-14 game at the half. There was no stopping Columbus in the second half, though, as they piled on 14 more points in the third quarter and 10 more points in the fourth to start the running clock in the closing minutes. Columbus ran a total of 24 plays in the second half, all but one on the ground led mainly by Riley and Tyson Kaalberg.

Unofficially, Columbus ended the night having outgained Wapello in total yardage by a final tally of 380-83. The Indians finished the night with -24 rushing yards aided by a handful of Columbus sacks, which was a stark contrast to Columbus’s unofficial 321 yards rushing. Trevor Phillips went 6/9 for 54 yards and a touchdown toss to Riley Kaalberg. Kaalberg himself had a monster night, piling up 234 yards on 26 carries with four touchdowns. Kaalberg also caught two passes for 21 yards and a touchdown. Add Tyson Kaalberg into the mix, and you get a stat line of 34 carries for 293 yards and six touchdowns. Wapello was led by Rowen Atkinson’s 5/13 night for 107 yards and two touchdowns. Grant Wilson had five carries for just 14 yards as well as a single reception for 18 yards and a score. Garrett Cooley had three catches for 52 yards and a touchdown.

Columbus Head Coach Dave Lekwa joined KCII Sports on the postgame show to talk about his team’s 51-14 victory over the Wapello Indians. “We really had some boys out of position. Therefore, we really leaned on the run game. Both Kaalberg boys did an excellent job, Juan [Chairez] did a good job, and Trevor our quarterback is a little banged up too, so I wasn’t trying to get him moving around throwing the ball,” Lekwa said.

With the win, Columbus not only gets their first win of 2024, but moves to a 1-1 overall record and 1-0 mark in district play ahead of a key matchup against Lisbon. Meanwhile, Wapello drops their record to 0-2 overall and 0-1 in district play. The KCII Area Game of the Week will dip back into 8-Man territory next Friday night when Winfield-Mount Union travels to Wayland to face a WACO Warrior team that will be celebrating its homecoming under the Friday night lights.