Thursday night looked as it would be a tough one for the Wildcats as the #3 hosted the Omaha North Vikings at Buell Stadium.

The Vikings were on a 1-1 start as their loss was to #2 Creighton Prep as they lost 12-7. They played them tough and after a 31-14 loss to Burke last week not a lot of expectations were in for the Wildcats.

Zander Gray, the running back for Omaha North, was coming into this game running over 300 yards on the season and could be a tough player for the defense to stop. Last week it seemed Millard West couldn’t stop anything on Burke and it was anticipated to see how they would play against this powerful running game for Omaha North.

It was a slow start to the night for both teams were Millard West was about at the 50 yard line and the drive would end up a 3 and out and Omaha North had bad field position. Junior Tristan Gomes started out the game and he showed a lot of strides in the run game, but couldn’t get the offense started.

Then junior Nate Glantz came in and added a spark. The drive he was in there he was able to get some passes out to junior Dalys Beanum and ultimately got a touchdown. Beanum had a great night where he caught four passes for 89 yards and two scores.

Going into halftime, the Wildcats were up 21-0 and looked as if they were going to blow out the Vikings. Vikings head coach Larry Martin needed to make adjustments.

On their first two drives for North, we saw Gray get a 64 yard touchdown run and on the next drive he battled his way through the defense and got another touchdown. Gray finished with 232 yards rushing and two touchdown runs on the night.

21-14 now.

It seemed as if all the momentum was on Omaha North’s side. After the score the Wildcats got a three and out which pegged them on all their drives in the third quarter. Now Omaha North had the ball back and was driving. Then Omaha Norths quarterback, Fogelstrom, who was having a inaccurate passing night all game through a touch pass to their leading receiver Wilson and senior Gabriel Anderson intercepted the pass and shifted all the momentum to Wildcats.

Anderson was a key for the Wildcats in this game. He was able to tag on two interceptions to him this season and also got a fumble recovery.

The turnover was the spark for the Wildcats as Omaha North couldn’t get anything to go the rest of the night and wasn’t able to score after it.

Senior Jackson Wright capped off the game with a touchdown run making it 28-14 and the Wildcats ended up winning it. Wright ending up racking up 78 yards on 17 carries as his strength and allusiveness  really bolstered the Millard West offense.

This was a huge win for the Wildcats beating the third ranked team in Nebraska, and the defending State Champions. With the win we got a showcase in Beanum as he looks like one of the best receiver in Nebraska and showed us this quarterback battle between Gomes and Glantz is far from over. Next week Omaha North will go against #1 Burke. Millard West will have a huge game next week against their rival Millard South. You can catch that anticipated matchup next Friday September 14th at 7 p.m. on Striv TV.