Two weeks after hoisting the Farmers Cup with a win over Mark Twain, Van-Far football took the Wagon Wheel trophy.

The Indians won 52-28 at Eastern Missouri Conference Bowling Green (2-4, 1-3 EMO), defeating the Bobcats for the first time since 2005. Van-Far (4-2, 3-1 EMO) finished with 393 rushing yards, including 211 yards from Gaven Gaston and 163 yards from Evan Utterback.

Van-Far (4-2, 3-1 EMO) scored on its first and second plays from scrimmage and added a kickoff return touchdown to open the second half. Utterback scored on the offense’s first play and had three total touchdowns, and Gaston reached the end zone on the second play and had the kickoff return touchdown for big days from each senior to finish with four total touchdowns. Head coach Lucas Gibson said the team looked much better than in the previous week’s 28-14 loss at Montgomery County.

“We ran the ball really well in a big bounce-back game for us,” Gibson said. “I feel like that was a winnable game. We didn’t have a 100 yards rushing last week, and this week it was well over.”

Bowling Green has been the unstoppable force in the conference with five straight undefeated conference championship seasons prior to starting this season 2-4. While Van-Far was only ahead by one possession 30-22 at halftime, Gibson said the Indians scoring quickly on some plays made a statement that this was a different year.

“It has a negative impact on the other team,” Gibson said. “We’ve been there. It’s just exhausting.”

Gibson Condie led the defense with 9.5 tackles, Utterback had nine tackles, Pacy Reading had 6.5 tackles and Easton Sharp had 5.5 tackles.

Van-Far returns home to play its next conference foe Wright City (5-1, 3-0 EMO) at 7 p.m. Friday for Senior Night. Gibson said winning a rivalry game like Bowling Green after a long time helps going into that tough matchup.

“Doing it in that place is pretty big,” Gibson said. “It’s hard to play on the road in high school. The boys wanted it and were fired up.”