The Roland-Story Norsemen football team returned to action on Friday night, as they made the long trip west on Highway 30 to Carroll County to take on the Kuemper Catholic Knights at Carroll Athletic Stadium in Carroll. Roland-Story entered at 2-1 and ranked #8 in Class 2A, while Kuemper Catholic entered at 2-1 and ranked #5 in Class 2A.
Friday’s 1st quarter would be a defensive chess match, as neither side would find the endzone with Roland-Story’s defense bending but not breaking. The 2nd quarter was much of the same until Sam Knoll went up top on a 30-yard completion to Aiden Frey to the Kuemper 5-yard line. Knoll would run in a 2-yard touchdown run 3 plays later to put the Norsemen up 7-0 with 2 minutes left in the first half. Kuemper Catholic would respond with a 2-minute drill as the finishing play was a 20-yard touchdown pass from Brock Badding to Braxton Vonnahme to make the halftime score 7-7.
Roland-Story took the football to start the 2nd half and would find success, as Sam Knoll hit his 2nd deep pass on the night to Luke Thoreson for a 36-yard gain to the Kuemper 6-yard line. Knoll scored on the next play on a quarterback keeper to put the Norsemen ahead 14-7. That score would last until midway through the 4th quarter, as a Sam Knoll screen pass was tipped and intercepted by Kuemper’s Kent Sanders who ran it all the way back to Roland-Story 27-yard line. Knights running back Jarin Hoffman would score the next play on a 27-yard run to tie the score at 14-14. Roland-Story would run the football into the Kuemper territory and with just over a minute left, would try for a go-ahead 36-yard field goal, but the snap would go over the holder’s head as the Knights would have one more chance in regulation. Badding would heave a ball to the endzone with under 20 seconds left, which would be picked off by Luke Thoreson to send the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Knights would push their luck to the limit, but on 4th and goal at the 6, Badding found his favorite target Carson Kanne for a 6-yard touchdown pass to put the Knights ahead 22-14 after gambling and going for 2. Roland-Story got the ball back and struggled to move the football on their only drive of overtime and came up short on 4th and goal as the Knights held on for a 22-14 win.
Sam Knoll was the KQWC Player of the Game and would go 4-13 for 68 yards, while rushing for 13 yards and 2 touchdowns. Ben Mazyck led the Norsemen with 73 yards rushing on 18 carries, while Cody Long ran for 49 yards on 14 carries. Kuemper quarterback Brock Badding went 16-34 for 215 yards and 2 touchdowns with 2 interceptions, while Jarin Hoffman ran for 114 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries.
Roland-Story football returns to action on Friday night, when they host the Southeast Valley Jaguars in District 8 action on homecoming at Kerry Van Winkle Field, with kickoff at 7:30 PM.