Wamego turned in a dominant first half in their 62-12 home victory over Abilene Friday night. The Red Raiders led 56-0 at halftime which resulted in a running clock in the second half. The Cowboys fell to 0-5 on the season but did score for the first time on the year with a couple of second half touchdowns. It was the first meeting between the two NCKL rivals since 2017. Wamego jumped back up to Class 4A this season after they had spent the previous two years in Class 3A. The Red Raiders are now 4-4, they snapped a three game losing streak with the victory. They have played one of the toughest schedules in the state. Wamego had consecutive losses to Paola, Bishop Meige and Ft. Scott over the last three weeks.
The Red Raiders scored touchdowns on their first 8 drives of the game and capitalized on Abilene turnovers. The Cowboys lost 5 fumbles in the game. Wamego Sophomore Quarterback, Hayden Oviatt led the way for his team. He scored on the first series of the game with an 8 yard run to make the score 7-0 with 9:09 to play in the first quarter. Oviatt finished with 144 yards passing with a touchdowns and ran for 75 yards and two additional touchdowns. Ryan Erickson scored on their second series with a 4 yard score, he ran in the 2 -point conversion to extend the lead to 15-0 with 4:25 left in the first quarter. Oviatt would add his second score on a 35 yard run for Wamego’s third touchdown to push the lead to 22-0 with 2:13 left in the opening quarter. The Red Raider’s Hagan Johnson would then show off his skills with a 24 yard run and a 28 yard reception for Wamego’s next two touchdowns to give them a 36-0 lead with 38 seconds left in the first quarter.
Red Raider Runningback, Jace Hodges would then take over. He scored the next two touchdowns for Wamego on runs of 5 and 4 yards. His second touchdown increased the lead to 50-0 with 5:46 to play in the first half. Hodges finished with 124 yards on 16 carries. Wamego scored their final points of the first half on a 4 yard run by backup Quarterback, Colin Donahue. His touchdown came with 1:18 left before halftime.
Wamego’s Donahue scored their only points of the second half on a 60 yard run with 9:51 to play in the third quarter to give the Red Raiders a 62-0 lead. Abilene then scored their first points of 2020 with an 8 yard run from Quarterback, Kaleb Becker to cut the deficit to 62-6 with 3:18 to play in the third quarter. The Cowboys then scored on the final play of the game. Becker connected with Nathan Hartman on a 34 yard pass play. The touchdown was set up by a 57 yard reception by Lucas DeDonder, which is the longest play of the season for Abilene.
Abilene will travel to McPherson, Thursday in the opening round of the playoffs.
