By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

VICTORIA -- Midway through the third quarter, Otis-Bison quarterback Kevin Wissman faked a pass, ran right to the sideline, faked again, took off, stopped, went right, broke two tackles, cut back left, broke two more tackles and picked up a 19-yard gain against Victoria's defense.

The run was one of many electrifying plays for the shifty and powerful 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior. Every time Wissman touched the ball, he made a big play and helped the Cougars continue a turnaround season.

"He is definitely the best playmaker we have seen," Victoria head coach Doug Oberle said.

Wissman finished with 18 carries for 164 yards and five rushing touchdowns and threw a 32-yard TD pass as Otis-Bison defeated No. 1 Victoria, 72-26, at Knights Field on Friday night.

"I haven't had this feeling since middle school," Wissman said. "Middle school, we were dominating. The last three years, it's been rough. I enjoy being back on the winning side."

The Cougars, ranked No. 5 in Eight-Man, Division II in the statewide media poll, moved to 8-0 overall, 4-0 district, with another dominating victory. Otis-Bison, 2-7 last fall and 12-24 in Coach Travis Starr's first four seasons, won the District 7 title and ended Victoria's 21-game regular season winning streak. The Cougars clinched their first district title and playoff berth since 2003.

"It definitely surprised me," Starr said. "That Victoria team is one heck of a ball team. We had to play obviously a perfect or near-perfect game and a great game to beat those guys, and I thought we got after it tonight,"

Otis-Bison, paced by four touchdowns from Wissman, led 44-6 at the half. Victoria (7-1, 3-1) scored several times in the second half, but the game ended by the 45-point mercy rule late in the fourth quarter when Otis-Bison junior Michael Hlavaty returned an interception 47 yards for a score.

"We had the confidence going in there," Wissman said. "We had no doubt that we were going to (win). We knew Victoria, they had the reputation, they were going to come out in the second half, they were going to go hard. So we had to go 110 percent, but we were confident the whole way through."

The Knights, winners of two state championships in the last five years, dropped to 7-1 and suffered their worst loss since a 46-0 defeat against Jetmore in the 2003 playoffs.

It marked the Knights' biggest regular season defeat since a 70-20 loss to Sylvan Grove/Sylvan Unified in 2001. Otis-Bison, led by Wissman, won its fifth straight game by mercy rule. They lead Kansas in scoring offense with 478 points.

"He is a fantastic player," Oberle said. "I felt like their front just go off the ball on us. When we had our opportunities, we couldn't get the kid on the ground. We had some mistakes."

The Cougars rolled up 368 rushing yards, including 111 from Hlavaty and 93 from freshman Dylan Wissman, Kevin's brother. Hlavaty collected three touchdowns, including two rushing, and Dylan Wissman added a score.

"Everyone is a part of it," Dylan said. "They have to look at everyone because anybody can score on you."

Kevin Wissman bumped his season numbers to 1,566 total yards and 35 total touchdowns. Hlavaty has 864 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns behind a line that includes senior Matt Suppes and juniors Josh Krom, Dominic Trapp, Robert Kolas and Jackie Cornwell.

"Our offensive line has made tremendous strides over the last year and it leaves you a bigger hole," Starr said. "Your running backs have the ability to cut and run and do things like that, but when they are getting hit in the backfield like previous years, you can't do much. It all starts up front, and that is where we really hang our hat now."

Otis-Bison scored on every single possession and continually had big plays from Wissman, who missed the first four games of last season with a shoulder injury and wasn't fully healthy all year. This fall, though, he has wreaked havoc on defenses, including Victoria's. As the game progressed, the Knights rarely rushed Wissman. On one two-point conversion, Wissman stood in the pocket for nearly 10 seconds before he ran in for the score.

"It was almost like I just stopped," he said. "My mind went blank. I don't know what to do. Do I pump-fake it? I just waited. Hopefully, a guy got open. It was awesome. Never happened before."

"We wanted to make him throw the ball," Oberle said. "We took it a little too literally. I didn't want us sitting quite like that. I wanted us to get up field. To their credit, they made some plays throwing the ball. We just couldn't stop the kid all night. We just had no answer for him,"

On the game's first drive, Wissman had a 15-yard carry and then an 11-yard TD run. The next possession, he broke four tackles down the right side for a 33-yard score. Hlavaty tacked on a 15-yard run for a 20-0 lead.

"Every play he touches the ball, he is always a threat to do something," Starr said. "Like I told our coach earlier, if colleges don't want him next year, we'll take him back in an instant."

On the next possession, Victoria had a 67-yard TD run by senior Garrett Dreiling called back because of an inadvertent whistle. The Knights eventually turned the ball over on downs.

"We had some things that didn't go our way," Oberle said.

Victoria committed a 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty on the Cougars' following drive and Otis-Bison had another score on a 4-yard run from Hlavaty. Hlavaty forced a fumble on the following possession and Wissman picked up a 7-yard run for a 36-0 lead. Victoria scored with 15 seconds left in the half on a 57-yard pass from Dreiling to senior Austin Roth.

"Everyone had to be accountable for their own job," Starr said. "We had a few letdowns, but we had eliminated the big plays that had been killing us in the past."

The Cougars, though, scored again before the half. Wissman went right, then left, then right again as the entire Knights defense keyed on him. Still, he bounced off and stiff armed tacklers to rush for 16 yards.

"Sometimes coaches criticize me because they say, 'I know you think you always have somewhere to go, but sometimes just slide down,' " Wissman said. "I always think I have another yard to get. You don't go down, you try not to, you never give up."

On the following play, Wissman, with plenty of time, launched a 32-yard TD pass to junior Jake Crotinger as time expired. The play marked Wissman's eighth TD pass this year and Crotinger's first catch of the season. On the two-point conversion, Victoria didn't rush a single player and sat back on defense. Wissman, who said it felt "like 20 seconds," before he finally took off and scored the conversion.

"You always ready your keys and they were dropping so many backers back," Wissman said. "I know they were dropping both their backers back almost every time, except for one blitz. They dropped their backers so much."

Victoria tallied three second-half scores, mainly behind Dreiling, who finished 9-of-22 passing for 158 yards. Still, Otis-Bison continued scoring and finished the game on Hlavaty's interception return. As Hlavaty came off the field, Wissman gave him a high-five as the Cougars capped the game with an on-field celebration.

"They beat us," Oberle said. "They physically wore us out. The Wissman kid is just incredibly tough to tackle."