When a team hits that elusive thing called “stride” it can literally cause nightmares for opposing coaches.

And when a team has stride to go with cohesiveness, as does the Superior Bobcats 8-man football team, those coaches may end up mumbling to themselves behind the locker room chalk board.

So it goes for the Bobcats, who have steamrolled every opponent they’ve played so far this year, the latest victims of a good paving being the Victor Pirates. And it was on their Homecoming Day.

Victor was forced to walk the plank early on their way to a 50-6 act of piracy on dry land at the hands for the invaders from Superior.

In the end, if Victor was looking for any kind of consolation, it was the fact they “held” Superior to 50 points, which ties the St. Regis-Mullan, Idaho co-op team for least points surrendered in the face of a horde honors.

The game was tied once, when they caught the opening kickoff and before the Bobcats got their hands on the ball.

Other than that, it was all Bobcats all the time.

With just over seven minutes to play in the first quarter, after Superior had stopped Victor on downs at midfield, Bobcat senior quarerback Orion Plakke sprinted through the Pirate defense for 20 yards and a touchdown. The extra point attempt was no good, leaving Superior with a 6-0 lead.

That was as close as Victor would get the rest of the day. Only the halftime time Homecoming King and Queen thing kept Victor fans in their seats.

After the Bobcats kicked off, they recovered the fumbled kickoff, giving the Bobcats the ball on their own 36. On the next play, Plakke threw a strike of a touchdown pass that was collected by a Bobcat receiver for a 44-yard TD just seven seconds after the first Superior score.

The PAT was good, boosting the Cats to a 14-0 advantage with half the first quarter remaining to be played.

Superior’s swarm and bury defense got the ball back on downs a short time later. With 3:30 left in the first quarter, Bobcats senior running back Decker Milender swept outside and scooted around the Victor defense on his way to a 29-yard touchdown jaunt. The two-point PAT pass was good, giving the visitors a 22-0 lead as time expired in the opening 12 minutes of play.

And yup, the Cats D continued its stingy ways, forcing yet another turnover on downs. The ensuing drive was capped by a thundering 15-yard scoring assault by 6-0, 240-pound senior lineman/part-time fullback Chandon Vulles, who split the opposing defense like a power boat through a calm lake. Vulles’ scary run moved the score to 28-0 Superior, with more than 10 minutes left to play in the first half.

Superior scored again in the blink of an eye when Milender intercepted a Victor pass and raced 46 yards to pay dirt and a 44-0 Bobcat lead.

Mercifully for all in attendance, especially nervous Victor Homecoming nominees, the first half came to an end with that same score.

Well rested from the halftime ceremony, both teams venture back onto the field of play where it took the Cats just over two minutes to score again, this time on a 45-yard touchdown hurl from the Bobcats “other” quarterback, Jaxson Green, who had been seen earlier and often make life miserable for the Victor offense.

The ball settled into the hands of Milender who cashed in to give the Bobcats a 50-0 lead going into the final quarter of play.

Victor would add a meaningless touchdown midway through the fourth quarter when Bobcat reserves were getting in a decent work-out/slash playing time gig.

The clock had been running non-stop due to the 35-point Mercy Rule and the final whistle closed out the rout.

The win improved the Cats to 6-0 on the year, while the Pirates fell to 0-5.

Next up for Superior is a key conference game against visiting Charlo this Friday night in Superior.

In other action: St. Regis/Mullan found a substitute opponent for their scheduled bye week and they proved to be a tough substitute indeed. The joint Tigers traveled to Chinook, Mt for a game with the unbeaten sugarbeeters and got a taste of why they were 7-0.

No detailed scoring was available, but Chinook won the game 42-26, just the second loss of the year for the Tigers.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 5-2 on the year.