Photo Courtesy of Lisa K. Morgan Photography
Despite a strong start, the Pella Christian football team couldn’t keep pace with Roland-Story Friday in a 42-21 loss heard live on 92.1 KRLS.
The Norseman opened the scoring with a touchdown pass on their first drive of the game midway through the first quarter, but the Eagles wasted little time responding. On their ensuing drive, Pella Christian got on the board with Trey Steinkamp’s seven-yard touchdown pass to Levi Fransman, knotting the game up at 7-7 with 3:21 remaining in the first quarter. Roland-Story began to pull away from there, scoring twice more before halftime to grab a 21-7 lead at the break, then added another touchdown a minute into the second half. A Steinkamp four-yard rushing score pulled Pella Christian back with 28-14 with two minutes left in the third quarter, but the Norseman added two touchdowns in a span of 16 seconds between the third and fourth quarters to go ahead 42-14. The Eagles kept fighting to the end, with Steinkamp and Fransman again connecting for a four-yard touchdown pass to close out the scoring. Head coach Rich Kacmarynski said that Roland-Story won the game in the trenches.
“They were as tough as advertised. They were really tough on the line of scrimmage and I thought they really kind of handled us nicely on the line of scrimmage and that’s the key to football. They have some nice skill players as well. We battled hard and I’m proud of our kids because they gave it a great effort. We just need to get a lot better, particularly technique-wise on the line of scrimmage.”
Pella Christian fell to 0-1 overall on the season, and they will look to bounce back next Friday when they host Pleasantville in their home opener.
