The Pinnacle Bank Game of the Week featured Class C-2 No. 2 David City Aquinas traveling to C-2 No. 1 Oakland-Craig.

Oakland-Craig opened the scoring with an 11-yard touchdown run by senior Coulter Thiele, his shortest of three TD runs. A two point conversion by him gave the Knights an early 8-0 lead. Aquinas senior Michael Andel answered with a second quarter touchdown run of his own. At the half the Knights had an 8-6 lead.

Thiele would take over along with the Knights rushing attack to win 28-12.

Here are Prep Recruiting Specialist Mike Sautter's three takes from the game.

* * *

1. Oakland-Craig's leading rusher on the season, Jaron Meyer, only had three carries before missing the rest of the game due to injury. In the second half, Thiele broke loose for 79-yard and 64-yard touchdown runs. He finished the game with six rushing attempts for 207 yards and three TDs. Thiele along with senior Caden Nelson were key to the game. Theile broke long runs along, while Nelson kept running up the middle to get first downs. Oakland-Craig finished the game with nearly 339 rushing yards.

2. To slow Aquinas' rushing attack, the Knights knew they needed to get big games from senior linebackers Mike Brands and Nelson. The two stepped up, holding Aquinas to 190 rushing yards. Brands and Nelson each had 10 total tackles in the game. Brands' younger brother JT set the defensive tone early for the Knights. Just a freshman, Brands is already 6-foot-1, 220-pounds and had a big sack in the first half. JT is one to keep an eye on as his high school career progresses.

3. Aquinas relied heavily on fullback Andel. The junior back led Aquinas in rushing with 73 yards and had a touchdown. Defensively, he made big hits from his linebacker position and looks as though he will be a force the rest of this year and next.