Eagles Fly Past The Indians At The End To Claim Victory
The ball sails just out of reach for Oskaloosa’s Isaac Schultz against Pella Christian on Friday night.
Pella, Iowa – The matchup was a historic one, as the two teams had never matched up on the gridiron, and for over three quarters of play, it was a seesaw battle.
In the end, the Eagles claimed the first victory by a score of 51-33 on the Eagles home field.
Oskaloosa Head Coach Jake Jenkins said the two programs are well balanced, and it “could have been a toss-up. It could have went either way.”
On the sideline Jenkins was heard telling his team this is a battle, but shortly after that, it became apparent the Indians would end up losing the war. “I tell you what, we made too many big mistakes.”
“You always make your biggest growth from week one to week two. You know, they made mistakes too, we just made big mistakes that cost us,” added Jenkins. “We made too many mistakes to come back against a quality team like PC.”
“Our guys are in shape, and our guys are tough,” said Jenkins of the conditioning of the team that didn’t suffer the cramping their competition did. “They’re hurt [Indians], they’re beat up. They did not quit, and they did not stop, and they didn’t go down.”
Continuing as in past years, it’s one game at a time with Jenkins and his Indians. Next week will be a matchup against perennial powerhouse Washington.
Jenkins said that the change he would make from the beginning of the season would be to have worked on special teams a little more.
After the first quarter of play, the Indians were down 17-7 to the Eagles, with the final score of the quarter coming on a 97-yard kickoff return by Nathan De Bruin.
As the second quarter opened up, Casey Hill dashed in from 7 yards out with 10:04 on the clock to tighten up the score 17-13 in favor of the Eagles.
Just over a minute later, PC’s Kyle Fynaardt rush from 48 yards out to put the Eagles up 24-13.
The scoring continued when Oskaloosa’s Cole Henry rushed 9 yards for the TD, with 7:35 on the clock in the first half. Eagles up 24-19 over the Indians.
With time running out in the first half of play, Cole Henry once again found his way into the end zone from 1 yard out to put the Indians up for the first time in the contest. Three seconds remained on the clock.
After the break, the two teams traded touchdowns, the first coming from the Eagles to reclaim the lead. Noah Treimer ran from 30 yards out to put the Eagles back on top 30-25.
With 1:39 remaining in the 3rd quarter, Cole Henry connected with Tyler Miller for the 6-yard touchdown. The pass from Henry to Nikolas Dykstra for the PAT was good and the Indians were once again up 33-30.
The 4th quarter belonged to the Eagles, as they racked up 3 unanswered scores, bringing the final score to 51-33 for the home team.
Pella Christian outran the Indians 267 yards of rushing to the Indians 173. In the air, the Indians had 220 to 94 for the Eagles.
Casey Hill lead the Indians in rushing with 100 total yards of rushing on 25 attempts. Miller had 53 yards of rushing, while Henry netted 14.
For the Eagles, Treimer gained 120 yards on the ground, while Daniel Jungling had 72, and Kyle Fynaardt had 54.
Cole Henry had 206 yards of passing, completing 19 of 39, with 1 touchdown and 1 interception.
Daniel Jungling had 94 total yards, completing 7 of 16 passing attempts and 2 touchdowns.
Tyler Miller had 63 yards receiving, with 1 touchdown. Nikolas Dykstra snagged 5 passes for 43 total yards.
For the Eagles, Treimer had 4 receptions for 40 yards, and 1 touchdown, while Keean Cadwell had 27 yards receiving on a single reception for a touchdown.
Defensively, Coy Snakenberg had 6 total tackles, while a host of Indians had 5 tackles on the night. Those include Cole Kraber, Cody Gunn, Riley Miller, Cade Snakenberg, Tyson Breuklander, and Zaiyan Mamun.
The Indians open up their season at home against Washington on Friday night, with varsity kickoff set for 7:30 pm.
