Ever since the Pella Christian football program started over a decade ago, one team has been on their schedule year-in and year-out, and most frequently to start the season.
The No. 3 in Class 1A Eagles travel to Monroe tonight to take on rival PCM to begin the 2016 campaign.
Pella Christian will look to make the same kind of opening week statement as they did last year against the Mustangs, when they blew out PCM 48-11.
Mustangs Head Coach Greg Bonnett says they can’t afford to make the same defensive mistakes they did one year ago when they let All-State Slot Receiver Levi Jungling loose to the tune of 312 yards and five touchdowns.
“We didn’t really have as much what I would call respect for the deep ball as what we needed to last year, and that hurt us, so this year it’s going to be one of those things where we’ll keep a bend but don’t break philosophy,” Bonnett says.
For the veteran Eagles team, Head Coach Rich Kacmarynski believes the defense needs to stay focused, especially with a lot mystery surrounding the skills of new PCM quarterback Sheldon Speers.
“Our message to our team is just be ready for anything–play good defense, line up correctly, communicate well, run to the ball, tackle well,” he says. “We’re just going to try and play fundamentally sound defense no matter what formation or whatever play they show up in.”
Tonight’s Pella Christian-PCM football game is available on two streams at KNIAKRLS.com. For the Eagles’ perspective, join Andrew Schneider and Larry Hessing at 6:30 for pregame on KRLS2, and for Mustangs coverage, join Andrew Swadner and Jeff Lindsay in the Iowa State Savings Bank Radio Pregame Show at 6:30 on KNIA2. Kickoff is set for 7:00.

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