Through two weeks of the high school football season, Norwalk has flashed moments of greatness inside eight quarters of inconsistency. The Warriors fell to 0-2 overall on Friday, losing 23-13 against a talented Sioux City East squad on Senior Night at Mineart Field.

Trailing 16-0 at halftime, Norwalk put together two second-half scoring drives but also turned the ball over twice and never trailed by less than nine points. After the Warriors scored their final touchdown with 3:11 remaining, East denied Norwalk’s two-point conversion try, then picked up two first downs to run out the clock. The Black Raiders amassed more than 400 yards of total offense on the night, improving to 2-0 overall.

Norwalk coach Paul Patterson tells KNIA Sports that the Warriors must continue to work on eliminating self-inflicted issues as they navigate through their first season of Class 5A football. “We feel like we’re a better football team than what we’ve shown the first two weeks, but our record is still 0-2 and we still are not executing at a level that we think we are capable of executing at,” Patterson said. “At times you’ll see glimpses of it, but you don’t see it consistently.”

Norwalk drove into Black Raider territory four times in the first half but came up empty. A 34-yard field goal was blocked and the Warriors also lost a fumble at the East 24-yard-line. East quarterback Cal Jepsen took advantage of an injury-depleted Norwalk secondary, firing second-quarter touchdowns of 35 yards to Tanner Boonstra and 83 yards to Isaiah Grant. Jepsen, who passed for 268 yards, unofficially, added a 34-yard scoring toss to running back Amos Collins in the third quarter to put East up 23-7. Collins had a busy night on the ground, rushing for more than 150 yards on 29 carries.

Norwalk converted a fake punt in the third and got on the board when James Hatlevig connected with Eli Robbins on a 27-yard TD pass. The Warriors committed their second and third turnovers of the night on the next two series and were later stopped on downs at the 10. Following Hatlevig’s fourth-and-22 bomb to Robbins, Breck Welch scored Norwalk’s second touchdown on a three-yard reception. Unofficially, Robbins totaled nine catches for 98 yards – playing on an injured foot – and Luke Brewer added seven catches for 64 yards.

The Warriors will play another home game in Week 3, hosting four-time defending state champion Southeast Polk at 7:00 p.m. next Friday.