With running back Avery Van Zee and tight end Tyson Wassenaar out due to injuries, the offense sputtered a bit last night for the Pella High football team. The special teams picked up the slack, however, and the Little Dutch clinched class 3-A district 6 with a 41-13 win over North Polk.

In a game heard live on the KRLS 2 stream of KNIA/KRLS dot com, the punt return team for Pella foiled an attempted fake punt and also blocked a pair of punts, all of which set up Little Dutch touchdowns en route to a 28-6 halftime lead.

Coach Jay McKinstrey credits coaches Roger DeWaard, Ben Bollard, Brent Van Houen and Gary Vos for having the punt return team ready to go.

“That punt return is always pretty stellar and we’re just very good at what we do there. It’s phenomenal the way they do things. North Polk was looking for a few plays to get an edge and hoping for some good things to happen. Certainly that boded well for us early and gave us great field position to get some points early.”

Pella’s offense struck for two third quarter touchdowns on passes from Nick Finney, one to Donovan Holterhaus and one to Ryan Van Wyk as the Little Dutch pulled away.

Finney threw for 152 yards and three scores and ran for 95 yards and a touchdown.

Pella improves to 8-0 overall and 6-0 in the district, clinching the district championship. They’ll travel to Nevada next Friday looking to close out a fourth consecutive undefeated regular season.

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