KIMBALL — Kimball/White Lake turned a four-point halftime lead into a 30-point high school football win on Friday.

The WiLdKats pulled away from Gregory for a 50-20 Missouri Valley Conference football win, improving to 4-3 with one week left in the regular season. 

“It’s pretty big, just even for playoffs,” KWL senior Johnny Lenz said. “It’s just a big win for this program, too.” 

The WiLdKats and Gorillas (4-3) traded touchdowns in a highly-entertaining first half, with KWL holding a 16-12 halftime lead. But KWL scored 42 straight points to pull away for a convincing victory. 

“It was huge for our program,” KWL coach Ryan Skluzak said. “We knew that they were a big play threat and we saw some of that tonight. We let them have a couple of those, but realistically we shut them down the rest of the night, and we are super proud how well our defense played. It was a big win for us.” 

Offensively, Lenz and Carter Konechne scored three touchdowns apiece. Chevy Fees added a rushing touchdown for the WiLdKats. Lenz said splitting carries in the backfield is beneficial and it showcases their strengths. 

“It’s awesome,” Lenz said. “Just the variety that you have just being able to swap people out and just the speed and the strength.” 

Skluzak called them the three-headed monster and the WiLdKats also utilized their jumbo package, which he said was also key toward the win. 

“We put seven guys on the line and run what we call jumbo and it’s just all men moving forward and finding a hole,” Skluzak said. “We try to break their will and tonight we were able to do that I believe.” 

Gregory struck first on a Landon Keiser 81-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff. Lenz scored a 27-yard TD run in the second quarter, and Gregory’s Colt Keiser ripped off a 20-yard run to put the Gorillas up 12-8.

Lenz, who was lined up as a wildcat quarterback, answered with a 50-yard touchdown run on 4th and 1 with seven minutes left before halftime. 

The WiLdKats were clinging to a 16-12 halftime lead, and they erupted for a 20-point third quarter. Fees scored a touchdown, and Konechne found the end zone twice in the quarter. 

Konechne and Lenz added touchdown runs in the fourth quarter. Gregory’s Lincoln Juracek tossed an 83-yard touchdown pass to Colt Keiser for the final score. 

Keaton Christensen added an interception on defense for KWL, which bottled up Gregory’s offensive attack for much of the night. 

“A lot of the games we go down,” Lenz said. “We just stick our heads up and battle back every time. We have to fix that, but our defense is pretty good.”

Gregory plays Parkston on Oct. 17. Kimball/White Lake plays Wolsey-Wessington on Oct. 17.

KWL is on a two-game winning streak, after dropping three in a row against conference powers Bon Homme, Parkston and Platte-Geddes. 

Skluzak said the WiLdKats have turned the corner at the right time of the season. 

“We can be a super scary team in the playoffs and we think this is a big boost for us going forward,” Skluzak said.