Photo courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

The Pella Christian football team cruised to their first win of the season Friday night, defeating Davis County 70-19 in a game heard live on the KRLS2 stream.

The Eagles dominated in all phases of the game, scoring eight offensive touchdowns, two special teams touchdowns, and forcing four Mustang turnovers. Pella Christian raced out to a 21-0 lead after the first quarter, and continued to pour it on in the second to take a 49-12 lead into halftime. Despite the running clock in the second half, the Eagles continued to pull away from Davis County, outscoring the Mustangs 21-7 in the third and fourth quarters to improve to 1-5 overall and 1-2 in district play.

Quarterback Brecken Ritzert completed all three of his passes for 64 yards and a touchdown and added a rushing score on four carries for 71 yards before exiting the game with an injury in the second quarter. Backup quarterback Trey Steinkamp stepped in for Ritzert and completed six of his nine passes for 94 yards and three touchdowns. Landon Nunnikhoven added 73 rushing yards on 11 carries for three touchdowns, while Caleb Volk caught all three passes that came his way for 69 yards and three scores. Adam Kacmarynski contributed a 32-yard receiving touchdown and an 86-yard kickoff return for a score, and Cael Morgan capped off the scoring with a 72-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Defensively, Volk recorded a second quarter interception, while Tyson Vander Linden recovered two first-quarter fumbles and Levi Fransman added a fumble recovery on the last defensive series of the contest. Head coach Rich Kacmarynski said that it was fun to see all three phases of the game come together and lead them to the victory.

“You know, we’ve been building all season and we’ve been working for a breakthrough. We’ve seen some flashes here and there, but tonight was really great to get that kind of the big breakthrough we were looking for on the scoreboard and also in all three phases. So, we have a nice team and things are coming together and it’s fun because these guys have been working hard for a long time and it’s good to see some fruit come from that.”

The Eagles will look to build on the momentum of their first win next Friday on the road at South Tama.