Thrashing, thumping, mauling: any of these words would adequately express what the Viking football team did to the Knox Prairie Fire this past Saturday in a 51-20 victory.
The way to fight fire is with fire. Appropriately, the Vikes simply scorched the Prairie Fire as the record-breaking Eric Aspenson lit them up for five touchdown passes, bringing him a step closer to Lawrence’s all time leader.Lawrence has beaten Knox four out of the last five years, and has had an outstanding winning percentage against them since the 1960s. It feels good to be part of a school like that.
Knox was a standup team, with an honorable coach, and the few fans that traveled to the game all appeared to be nice and decent human beings. Unfortunately for Knox, being nice and decent human beings doesn’t correlate to success on the football field as the ferocious Vikings showed no mercy.
It didn’t take long for Craig Ebert to open the doors up with a 15-yard touchdown run with 10 minutes left in the first quarter. The remaining play of the quarter was the “Do-It-All” Derek Micke show.
Micke caught 73- and 23-yard touchdown passes from Aspenson to make the score 20-0, because there was one bobbled snap on an extra point. Brian Althouse drained the other two.
Ebert continued his strong game by catching a long tight-spiraled pass from Aspenson and ran for a 71-yard score. Althouse sank a 23-yarder to make it 30-0.
This was a huge moment: the score was getting out of control, and Knox appeared to placate us as we calmly recorded score after score. Finally, in the third quarter Knox’s miniature and feisty running back made an exceptional 31-yard run for a touchdown.
Our crowd sighed in either dismay or relief, it was difficult to tell. But the Vikes fired back with a 42-yard touchdown connection from Aspenson to Sam Laes, then a 10-yard catch for a score by Luke Fickbohm. Laes also had an interception near Lawrence’s end zone.
In the fourth quarter, a young, spry and agile Richard Langman came in for Aspenson. He can run, and run he did — for a 69-yard score, giving the Vikes half a Benjamin ***WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??–ama*** in points.
The reserve troops came in to solidify the victory. They were sweet enough to let Knox score two more times just for making the trip to Appleton. Of course, Aspenson had a huge day: five touchdowns, 308 yards, 43 career touchdown passes.
Craig Ebert ran off 106 yards, Walker for 42. Matt Hintz had two receptions, and Wes Otte had a catch.
It’s great to see the team playing like this late in the season. They have four games left, and play at Beloit this Saturday — hopefully they will have a repeat performance. The next home game is October 27 at 5:00 p.m. against Carroll.