It was expected to be one of the premier games around the state in 8-man DII on Friday night with Axtell hosting Hanover but in the end the No. 2-ranked Wildcats flexed their muscles in a 62-12 beat down of the No. 3 Eagles in a game that was ended early in the fourth quarter.

The beginning of the game though could not have started any better for Axtell who got a stop of Hanover after going three-and-out and two plays later cashed in on a 60-yard touchdown pass from Isaac Detweiler to Mitchell Buessing to lead 6-0 with 5:33 to go in the first quarter.

That score held until the end of the first and appeared to give Axtell of the momentum heading into the second, but from there Hanover scored 34 unanswered to lead 34-12 at the half behind two rushing touchdowns from Colin Jueneman and one touchdown each from Tyler Bonser and Jacob Jueneman.

Axtell got a late first half score on a second Detweiler to Buessing hook up, this time from 18 yards, pulling the Eagles back to within three scores at the half.

But, that is the closest Axtell would be the rest of the night as the Wildcats dominated the second half holding the Eagles to negative 14 total yards in the second half while Colin Jueneman added another rushing score and a receiving score to finish with four total touchdowns.

Jueneman ran for 164 yards on 12 carries and three touchdowns in the win, while Jacob Jueneman added 88 yards on the ground with two more scores.

Hanover outgained Axtell 404-150 in the contest and ran for 307 total yards averaging over 10.5 yards per carry.

Axtell’s only positive offense came through the air as Detwiler threw for 161 yards and two touchdowns, both to Mitch Buessing who finished with six catches for 127 yards and those two scores.

Hanover with the win is now 3-0 on the season and will host Osborne next week, while Axtell drops to 3-1 and will travel to Frankfort next week with live coverage on 92.1 KMZA.