The Warriors drew first blood when Nelson Schmidt scored on a two yard run with 2:30 remaining in the first half. Underwood tied the game one minute into the second half on a ten yard run by Zane Swanson. The Rockets scored the go ahead TD just five seconds into the fourth quarter on a one yard touchdown plunge by Swanson.

“We won a hard fought battle today that could have gone either way,” said Underwood Head Coach Chuck Ross.  “We executed a little better in the second half and that was the difference.  Wheaton came out with a good defensive game plan in the first half that gave us a lot of problems but our defense did an outstanding job and kept us in the game.  We made some adjustments at the half and caught a huge break on the 2nd half kickoff that went off a Warrior player and was downed on their one yard line.  After a three and out we had our first real good field position on the 30 yard line and were able to score on Swanson's first TD run of the game.”

Underwood compiled 305 yards of total offense (240 rushing, 65 passing), while the Warriors were held to 181 yards (108 rushing, 73 passing).

Swanson was the leading rusher in the game with 115 yards on 23 carries. Daxton Olson completed 4-of-12 passes for 65 yards and Levi Blaskowski caught three passes for 54 yards.

Schmidt led Wheaton with 78 rushing yards on 17 attempts and he completed 9-of-20 passes for 73 yards. The top receiver for the Warriors was Hunter Johnson with 6 receptions for 48 yards.

“Late in the fourth quarter a Wheaton punt was downed on our own 1 yard line and I really give credit to our offensive line and FB, Wyatt Thorson, who picked up some tough yards running the ball to get us out of the hole to help preserve the win,” said Coach Ross.

Underwood improved to 8-1 with their sixth straight win. They will try to avenge their only loss of the season when they meet Verndale next Friday.