The Roland-Story Norsemen football team returns to action on Friday night, as they host the Saydel Eagles on senior night in Class 2A, District 8 action from Kerry Van Winkle Field in Story City. Roland-Story enters at 5-2 and 3-1 in the district, while Saydel enters at 1-6 and 0-4 in the district. Friday’s meeting is 3rd ever meeting between the two schools, as Roland-Story holds a 2-0 advantage.
After a winless 2022, Saydel has shown vast improvement with a drop in class in 2023. Junior quarterback AJ Ollin has embodied that improvement on the field, as he’s thrown for 847 yards and 7 touchdowns, while rushing for another 208 yards and 2 touchdowns. Ollin has still thrown 6 interceptions and is only completing 42% of his passes, but the Saydel offense has opened new ways to attack defenses. The favorite target of Ollin has been junior tight end Sadler Gruber, who’s caught 20 passes for 213 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Eagles most explosive target has been junior receiver Trevor Goode, who’s caught 8 balls, but for 170 yards and 3 touchdowns and is averaging 21.3 yards per catch. Running the football has still been a stuggle for the Eagles, who have only rushed for 575 yards, 220 of them come from leading rusher and running back Jimmie Bridges, while Bridges does have a touchdown on the season.
Defensively, linebacker Grady Godwin has become the heartbeat of this Eagles defense, recording a team-high 40.5 tackles with 3.5 tackles for loss and a sack on the season. Godwin is bookended in the linebacker core by Jimmie Bridges, who has 27 tackles and 2 tackles for loss, as well as Trevor Goode, who has 20 tackles on the season. The defensive backfield has produced for the Eagles this year as well, Chase Sharp and AJ Ollin each have 2 interceptions to lead the room, and each player has a pick 6 to their name. Sharp leads the defensive backfield in tackles with 26.5 and a tackle for loss, while AJ Ollin has 22 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and a sack. The defensive line has seen a rise in production as well, as Nick Embry leads the unit with 24 tackles, 8 tackles for loss and a sack on the season, while freshman Damion Nowman has shown flashes of potential, with 10 tackles, 2.5 sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss.
Roland-Story, for the 2nd week in a row, road-graded the opposition at the line of scrimmage, as the Norsemen gashed Des Moines Christian for 416 yards on the ground. Expect more of the same on Friday with the three-headed monster at running back of Hesston Johnson, Jonovan Wilkinson and Fiston Carlson. Sam Knoll could have more action throwing the football as well, in preparation of the playoffs, as Roland-Story will host their first home playoff game in 15 years on the following Friday.
Kickoff is slated for 7:30 PM from Kerry Van Winkle Field in Story City on Friday night.