The Roland-Story Norsemen football team returned to action on Friday night, as they traveled to the Des Moines metro to take on the Des Moines Christian Lions in Class 2A, District 8 action at DMC High School in Urbandale. Roland-Story entered at 4-2 and 2-1 in the district, while Des Moines Christian entered at 3-3 and 2-1 in the district as well.
Des Moines Christian would take the football first, but were forced to punt to the hot Norsemen offense. As they did against Greene County, Roland-Story ran the ball effectively, with Hesston Johnson capping off the drive with an 18-yard touchdown run to make the score 7-0. Scoring wouldn’t pick back up until the 2nd quarter, when a Roland-Story drive aided by penalties, was capped off by a Jonovan Wilkinson 3-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 Norsemen. Des Moines Christian would respond on the following drive, capped off by a Davis Tokheim 13-yard touchdown run to make it 14-7. Following a Norsemen punt, DMC would strike again on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Tate Platte to tight end Landon Craven to tie the game at 14-14 at halftime.
Roland-Story would re-establish themselves on the ground on the 2nd half’s opening drive, as Fiston Carlson capped off the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to make it 21-14 Roland-Story. The Norsemen would be stoned on 4th and 1 on their ensuing drive, but Lions running back Davis Tokheim fumbled the football into the end zone on 1st and goal to give the ball back to Roland-Story on a touchback to end the 3rd quarter. Roland-Story marched the ball to midfield on the ensuing drive, before Fiston Carlson broke the game open with a 51-yard touchdown run to make it 28-14 Norsemen. The Norsemen defense then began to stiffen, as DMC’s offense sputtered the rest of the way, as Jonovan Wilkinson would punch in two more 4th quarter touchdowns to give Roland-Story the decisive 41-14 win.
Wilkinson had his best night of the season on the ground with 162 yards and 3 touchdowns on 23 carries. Freshman Fiston Carlson had 112 yards on 9 carries and 2 touchdowns, while Hesston Johnson had 12 carries for 95 yards and a touchdown, as Roland-Story clinched the 2-seed in Class 2A, District 8 and will host their first home playoff game since 2008 on October 20th.
Roland-Story wraps up the regular season at Kerry Van Winkle Field on Friday, when they host Saydel on senior night.