The Roland-Story Norsemen football team opens their regular season on Friday night, as they make the trip to Dutch Country to take on the Pella Christian Eagles in a non-district bout at Pella Christian High School. These two programs have met just once previously, with Pella Christian winning an 18-12 first-round playoff game in 2010, what would also be the final playoff appearance in Kerry Van Winkle’s Hall of Fame career.
Pella Christian enters 2025 bumping up to Class 2A for the first time since 2011, but the Eagles are looking for a bounce back season after a 3-6 campaign in 2024. The Eagles return starting quarterback Brecken Ritzert, who threw for 840 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2024, while rushing for another 166 yards and a touchdown. The weapons at Ritzert’s disposal will be brand new in 2025, with the Eagles losing their top 2 receivers, but returning senior Caleb Volk after 18 catches for 187 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2024. The running back room will be on the green side as well, with senior Garrett Wielard and junior Wyatt Bonnett the like heirs to inherent the backfield. The offensive line does have some key pieces to replace in Connor Van Zee and Josiah Vink.
As for the Pella Christian defense, the Eagles will have a couple of stout linebackers returning in seniors Garrett Wielard and Landon Nunnikhoven, as Wielard had a team-high 49.5 tackles, 4 TFL and a pick, while Nunnikhoven had 42.5 tackles. The defensive backfield returns some experience with Brecken Ritzert, who tallied 18 tackles, 3 TFL and a pick, as well as Caleb Volk and Riley Vincent, who each recorded interceptions in 2024. The defensive line will be a young one, as their top returner will be senior Toby Belzer, who had 15.5 tackles and 1.5 TFL last season.
Roland-Story enters Friday after a promising showing in their scrimmage against Gilbert. Sophomore Colin Willis played a majority of the snaps at quarterback and had a couple of impressive plays that resulted in touchdown passes. The Norsemen defense will shore up on some mistakes made that resulted in Gilbert touchdowns last week.
Kickoff is slated for 7 PM and the game can be heard on 95.7 KQWC or streaming online at kqradio.com.