The Roland-Story Norsemen football team returned to action on Friday, as they hit the road west on Highway 175 to take on Jaguars of Southeast Valley in Class 2A, District 8 action in Gowrie. The Norsemen entered at 2-2 and 0-1 in the district, while Southeast Valley entered at 3-1 and 0-1 in the district.
Roland-Story got the game going by digging into their bag of tricks, as senior receiver Boaz Clark came around end and threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to fellow senior Riley Larson to put the Norsemen up 8-0 early in the first quarter. The score would stay at 8-0 throughout a large portion of the game, as the defenses were the story for the first 3 quarters, Roland-Story would record 6 sacks and 11 tackles for loss as a unit, while Southeast Valley recorded 5 sacks and 7 tackles for loss as a unit, as the Norsemen went into the locker room up 8-0.
It wasn’t until the 4th quarter that Roland-Story would get back on the board, as Sam Knoll found Jonovan Wilkinson on a slant for a 19-yard touchdown pass to put the Norsemen up 14-0. After a defensive stop, Roland-Story went back to the short passing game, as Sam Knoll flared a bubble screen out to Cody Long, who took it down the sideline for a 36-yard touchdown to put the Norsemen up 20-0 with over 6 minutes left. That’s when Southeast Valley began their rally, as Brady Hanson returned the ensuing kickoff back 95 yards for a touchdown to make it 20-8 Roland-Story. The Norsemen offense was forced to punt, and Southeast Valley would strike again, as Cale Vansickle senior Andrew Miller for a 47-yard touchdown pass to bring the score to 20-14. Roland-Story would hang on to run the clock out and pickup the 20-14 win.
Sam Knoll went 6-for-22, 89 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception in the win, despite being sacked 5 times. Christian Chelsvig led the Norsemen defense with 9 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks on the night. Roland-Story returns to action on Friday night, when they host Greene County at Kerry Van Winkle Field in Story City for homecoming.