VINTON — There isn’t a lot of mystery, really.

When the Benton Bobcats have the football, there’s a pretty good chance that Carson Nolan is going to be the guy that makes things happen. The only mystery is how to stop him.

The big senior had a 301-yard total-offense night, completing 16 of 19 passes for 161 yards and one touchdown, while rushing for 140 yards on 17 carries with two touchdowns. Oh, just for fun, he also led the Bobcats with 6.5 tackles, 4.5 of them for a loss.

For all we know, he may have driven the bus.

“Carson is one of our dudes,” said Benton co-head coach Kal Goodchild. “We have a lot of guys who contribute, but it all goes through Carson.”

A punt swap opened the game before the Bobcat offense got going. Nolan led a quick drive that culminated with his one-yard plunge. The first of Drew Ballard’s six extra-points made it 7-0 with 4:30 left in the first quarter.

Nolan added a second score early in the second quarter to make 14-0 and before the half ended he hit Brody Timmerman on a 18-yard scoring pass to take the score to 21-0.

Not even three minutes into the second-half, Timmerman picked off a Colt Koeppen pass at the Viking 30 and took it to the house for Pick-6 and it was 28-0.

Elias Bieschke and Colton Kroneman each added fourth-quarter TDs, and the ‘Cats rolled to the victory.

It was a tough pill to swallow for the Vikings, who just a week earlier had ended a 24-game losing streak with a 42-14 win over Jesup.

“Nolan is tough to stop,” said Viking head coach Joe Hadachek. “But we didn’t didn’t do a very good job of getting people to the ball. That makes it much easier for the ball carriers.”

Along with all of Nolan’s mileage, Bieschke added 39 yards on 10 carries, Kaden Wright 18 on two carries, Kroneman 15 on four, and Timmerman 13 on one.

Timmerman finished 94 yards receiving on 11 catches, while Eli Patterson and Grant Volesky had 27 yards back and Cole Junge added 13.

Volesky joined Nolan with 6.5 tackles, while Grady Frese had 3.5, Bieschke three, Timmerman two and a whole bunch of people had around one.

One of the few bright spots on the night for the Black and Gold came from junior Isaiah Schneider. Schneider carried the ball 15 times for 64 yards, then threw in three catches for a team high 34 yards receiving.

“Isaiah had a good game,” said Hadachek. “He got a lot of those yards on his own, just running hard. If we can get him to the linebacker level clean, he can even be more effective.”

Koeppen was 10 of 22 for just 77 yards and two interceptions. Jacoby Johnson had three catches for 23 yards, Colson Chvala two catches for 14 yards and Tate Druschel had two catches for six.

Johnson led the Vikings with 7.5 tackles, with Chvala adding six, Landon Osborn 5.5, Jakob Becker and Trevor Harvey 3.5 each, and Landry Mouton, Reagan Salger, and Ben McGowen each had three.

The Bobcats (2-1) play their final non-district game Friday as they host Solon (3-) in a 7:30 contest.

“You know, the schedule we have makes you tough,” Goodchild said. “If you don’t get tough in that schedule, then then you’re in trouble. And our kids find they do.”

The Vikings (1-2) hit the road Friday night for a 7:00 p.m. District showdown at Hampton-Dumont.

“These are the games that really matter,” said Hadachek. “We have to put Friday behind us and get our focus back on our goals.”