ONALASKA — The Onalaska Luther High School football team allowed two fourth-quarter touchdowns, but stopping two attempts by Black River Falls two-point conversions allowed the Knights to walk away with a 34-32 Coulee Conference victory on Friday.
Luther (2-2 overall, 2-0 Coulee) followed up last week’s victory over G-E-T with another close contest with a conference rival and prevailed by stopping the final conversion with 24 seconds remaining.
The Knights rushed for 243 yards and battled back from a deficit three times before two returned interceptions reached the end zone and gave them a 34-20 lead by the end of the third quarter.
Luther scored three times in the third to erase a 20-14 halftime deficit. Junior Ashton Kendall caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from junior Jonny Holub to get things going, and juniors Peter Sobolik and Trent Berg ran back interceptions from Braylon Backaus. Senior Zach Luehmann caught a conversion pass after the final TD to complete the 20-point run.
Junior Logan Pierce carried 15 times for 85 yards, and Kendall and senior Jax Hendrickson rushed for one touchdown each for the Knights, who take a two-game win streak into next week’s game against Aquinas (4-0) at UW-La Crosse.
Holub completed 7 of 18 passes for 102 yards, and Kendall caught three of them for 42 yards.
Aquinas 49, G-E-T 14
GALESVILLE — The Blugolds (4-0, 2-0), who are ranked fourth in the Medium Division on the ESPN Wisconsin Media Poll, scored 20 points in the first quarter and 42 in the first half to keep the Red Hawks (0-4, 0-2) winless.
Senior quarterback Ryan Johnson completed 6 of 10 passes for 121 yards and three touchdowns as Aquinas won its 11th straight regular-season game.
Senior Waylon Hargrove caught three of Johnson’s passes for 80 yards and two touchdowns, and junior Brady Lee started the scoring with a 50-yard punt return for a touchdown in the first quarter.
Junior Isaac Miller and senior Marcus Klar each rushed for a touchdown, and senior Logan Becker caught a touchdown pass for the Blugolds.
West Salem 49, Westby 8
WESTBY — The visiting Panthers (3-1, 2-0) received 187 passing yards from junior quarterback Drew McConkey while blasting the Norsemen.
McConkey completed 7 of 9 passes, and one of them was a 75-yard scoring throw to junior Josiah Wolbrink. Senior Mekebo Anderson also had two catches for 72 yards and a touchdown in a game that included seven extra points kicked by sophomore Landon Wiegrefe.
Juniors Rory O’Neill and Lucas Fry combined for 144 rushing yards, with O’Neill gaining 74 of them on six carries and scoring two touchdowns. Fry picked up 70 on five carries with two touchdowns.
Senior defensive lineman Landon Michlig recorded two tackles for loss, one sack and had a fumble recovery for a touchdown, and junior Isaiah Laack recovered a fumble and made four tackles.
