Nemaha Central has notched big wins all year and the 3A Sectional round of the football playoffs was no different for the Thunder as they used early offense to set the tone and their clamp down defense shutdown Wellsville to guide the team to the 42-14 win. 

Wellsville started with the ball but didn't go anything with it on their first drive and when the Thunder got their first opportunity they took it 66 yards in seven plays and visited the endzone on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Hasenkamp to Luke Haverkamp making it 6-0 after a failed two-point conversion with 7:00 minutes left in the first quarter. The Eagles of Wellsville on their second drive were looking to get things rolling and tried to air it out deep but the Trajen Smith pass was intercepted by Mitchell Henry and the Thunder started their second offensive drive in Eagle territory. Working it to the redzone Nemaha Central had a fourth and four from the seven and Hasenkamp did his Houdini attack to elude tacklers in the backfield and back pedaled back to the 30-yard line and hurled the ball to the endzone in traffic and Trenton Henry snagged it for the seven-yard touchdown pass and with the two-point conversion it was 14-0. 

The Eagles finally hit something on offense on their third drive as Smith aired it out on the far sideline to Reece Williams and Williams took it to the house despite a pass inference call on Nemaha going for 68-yard touchdown pass but the two-point conversion failed and it was 14-6 with 2:06 left in the first quarter. Only one more score was added to the board before halftime as Nemaha Central had a one-yard touchdown run by Hasenkamp and two-point conversion to led 22-6 with 7:20 left in the first half. Wellsville was looking to cut the lead to one score before the half and mounted their best drive of the game going 15 plays but on a fourth and goal play from the nine-yard line Mitchell Heiman ended the Eagle drive as he swooped in and intercepted a Smith pass to dash the scoring hopes of Wellsville and at intermission Nemaha Central led 22-6. 

Both teams defense's continually stopped each other’s offense to start the second half until Dylan Enneking recorded the third Thunder intercepted and returned it to the 13-yard of Wellsville. On the next snap Mitchell Henry took it into the endzone on the 13-yard run and with a extra point kick made it 29-6. With 12 seconds left in the third the Thunder found the endzone again as Hasenkamp hit Enneking for a 33-yard touchdown and it was 35-6 going into the fourth. 

Wellsville continued to fight and found paydirt just one minute into fourth as Williams notched a five-yard touchdown and two-point conversion making it 35-14. The Thunder put the final tally on the board with a 57-yard bomb from Hasenkamp to Haverkamp and extra point with 9:34 left in the fourth quarter and the Thunder defense continued to hold down the Eagles for the Thunder to win 42-14. 

The Thunder with the win improved to 12-0 on the season and punched their ticket to the Final Four of Class 3A playoffs in Sub-State. Nemaha posted over 400 yards of offense in the contest led by Hasenkamp with 250 yards passing with four touchdowns, plus 71 on the ground with a touchdown. Mitchell Henry added 101 yards on 25 carries with a touchdown, while five different guys caught a pass led by Haverkamp who snagged four passes for 114 yards. 

Nemaha Central defense continued to be stout getting three interceptions, while stopping three Wellsville drives of 12 or more plays not giving up points on those drives including multiple fourth down stops in the redzone. The Thunder for the tenth time out of 12 games held an opponent to 14 points or less this year the defensive unit earned Community National Bank "Player to Bank On" honors on KMZA. 

The win moves Nemaha Central to the Sub-State round and a date with Rossville the two-time defending 3A State Champs next Friday, November 18th at Rossville. The two teams have played the last two years with Rossville winning each matchup in the Regional round of the playoffs. The game will be broadcasted on 92.1 KMZA and MSCSports.net next Friday night.