ELGIN — Evin Pelster’s opening kickoff return lit a fire under the Wolfpack Friday afternoon as they crushed North Central 54 to 20.
Pelster’s 50-yard kickoff return and Karson Kallhoff’s 15-yard touchdown run on the very next play put the Knights in a hole which they would not climb out of the rest of the game and the Wolfpack picked up their third victory of the season.
“Overall, just a really, really great, dominant performance,” Coach Nick Heithoff said immediately after the game. “We thought we could push them (North Central) around a little bit up front, and we made it a mission. I kind of felt like we could have ran pretty much anything we wanted to on offense and been successful.”
The Knights returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown.
That would be the extent of the offensive highlights for North Central as EPPJ scored the next 32 points.
Grady Drueke scored on a seven-yard touchdown run and then Kallhoff added his second touchdown of the quarter as the Wolfpack took a 24 to 6 lead into the second quarter.
The Wolfpack would add two more touchdowns as Kallhoff went to the air. First, he found Max Henn with a 16-yard touchdown pass. Then, just minutes later, Landyn Veik caught a 25-yard touchdown strike, having gotten behind the Knights defense.
The Knights’ lone score in the quarter came when they recovered a Wolfpack fumble near midfield, then used slant passes to move the ball down to the one-yard line.
From there, quarterback Fischer scored on the next play.
Two Wolfpack touchdowns in the third quarter sealed the victory.
The first came when Gavin Kallhoff burst up the middle for a 25-yard touchdown run. Pelster added the two-point conversion to make the score 48 to 12, starting a running clock for the remainder of the game.
The Wolfpack defense added the final touchdown when Henn and Justice Blecher forced a fumble which Trey Rittscher picked up for a 21-yard scoop-and-score touchdown, making the score 54 to 12.
Not long thereafter, the Wolfpack reserves took the field and finished out the game. The Knights managed a touchdown in the fourth quarter to wrap up scoring.
K. Kallhoff ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more.
Drueke led EPPJ on the ground with 157 yards on 16 carries.
Veik may have had the best game of any Wolfpack player. He led the team in tackles (8), made an interception to stop one NC drive and, on offense, caught a touchdown pass.
“The seniors came up big,” Co-Coach Matt Euse said. “Landyn had an interception. Trey with the recovery, and Karson made some big plays … Homecoming is a little sweeter when you win.”
Next up for the Wolfpack will be a Friday night game at Creighton.
….see more at this week’s Elgin Review.
