It’s game day for Central Iowa’s division three football rivalry today in Pella as Central hosts Simpson.

The Dutch are coming off of their bye week and stand at 6-2 overall and 4-2 in the Iowa Conference. Simpson made a furious comeback attempt last week, but missed a field goal at the buzzer to lose to Nebraska Wesleyan 24-22. They’re 3-5 overall and 2-4 in league play.

Dutch Coach Jeff McMartin says that today’s game could be determined by the Central offense against the Storm defense. The Dutch average 38.9 points per game, while Simpson gives up only 23.3. Those are both the second best in the Iowa Conference.

“They have one of the best secondaries in the Iowa Conference, and when you look at where they stack up, they are very good in pass defense. We’re going to have to be sharp and make sure we take care of the football. That’s going to be number one. Number two is that we have to win the battle up front, not only to get our ground game going but to give our quarterback time to throw.”

Simpson has been plagued by inconsistency this season, and Storm Coach Matt Jeter says that his club’s game plan today is simply to put it all together for 60 minutes.

“Our standard of excellence is not going to waiver here. We have to play 60 minutes of Storm football, and we’re not there yet. There are some peaks and valleys where we’re playing Storm football and then there are some inconsistencies where we’re not. We’re not going to flinch as far as our standard of excellence for this program and we need to play 60 minutes of Storm football.”

Today’s game kicks off at 1:00 at Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium in Pella. You can hear the game on both KNIA & KRLS, with Trevor Castle and George Wares calling the action on 92.1 KRLS, and Rick Wilson joining Andrew Swadner for the call on AM 1320 and FM 95.3 KNIA. Pregame on both stations starts at 12:35.