The Roland-Story Norsemen football team returned to action on Friday night, as they hosted the Southeast Valley Jaguars on homecoming night at Kerry Van Winkle Field in Story City, for Class 2A, District 8 action. Roland-Story entered at 2-2, while Southeast Valley also entered at 2-2.
Southeast Valley took the ball first and were forced to punt, as Roland-Story’s offense would take to the air, with a 40-yard pass from Sam Knoll to Hesston McIlrath setting up a 5-yard touchdown pass from Knoll to Luke Thoreson to put the Norsemen up 7-0. The Norsemen would force another stop and get the ball back, as Sam Knoll again went to the air and found a wide open Luke Thoreson for a 21-yard touchdown pass down the middle to put Roland-Story up 14-0. Southeast Valley would turn the ball over on the ensuing possession, with Cale Vansickle throwing an interception to Blake Larson, from there Roland-Story took the lid off the defense with a 54-yard touchdown pass from Knoll to Heston McIlrath to put Roland-Story up 21-0 after the 1st quarter. Southeast Valley would get on the board early in the 2nd quarter on a 52-yard touchdown by quarterback Cale Vansickle to cut the score to 21-7. Roland-Story would respond by mountain a ground-heavy drive, capped off by a 1-yard touchdown run by Cody Long to make it 28-7 Norsemen. Roland-Story would get one more crack at the end zone before half, as Sam Knoll threw his 4th touchdown pass of the half to Hesston McIlrath to put Roland-Story up 35-7 at halftime.
Norsemen would pickup the scoring midway through the 3rd quarter as Heston McIlrath returned a punt 60 yards for a touchdown to put Roland-Story up 42-7. The Jaguars would add 2 more scores, the first a Lenix Albee 33-yard field goal and a block of a Sam Knoll punt that was recovered for a touchdown by the Jaguars to bring the final score to 42-17.
Sam Knoll would have the stand out day for Roland-Story, going 14-27 for 210 yards and 4 touchdowns, while rushing for another 42 yards. Heston McIlrath would rack up 122 receiving yards on 5 catches with 2 touchdowns, while also collecting 69 punt return yards and a touchdown. Cody Long led the Norsemen on the ground with 73 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries.
Roland-Story football returns to action on Friday, when they travel to Jefferson to take on Greene County in Class 2A, District 8 action, with kickoff at 7 PM from Linduska Field.