When Pella plays Dallas Center-Grimes tomorrow night in the class 3A football quarterfinals, one thing will be significantly different than when the Mustangs beat the Little Dutch in week two – Pella’s offense.

Early in the season, the Little Dutch were running the diamond formation, which had quarterback Ryan Gustafson and three running backs in the backfield. On 24 rushing attempts, Pella only managed 15 yards, which caused offensive coordinator Blaine Forsythe to open up the playbook, resulting in a school record tying 31 pass attempts for Gustafson.

Forysthe and the coaching staff reevaluated the offensive scheme after that game, and made sweeping changes that they’ve been perfecting during the district portion of the season.

“You know you start five weeks late because you’re changing it from week two going into week three. And we’ve really gotten a lot better at finding our identity. We’re improving each week in our offensive play calling and our offensive personnel and putting guys in the right spot to be successful.”

The Little Dutch will still have their hands full with a Mustang defense that has pitched four shutouts this season and allowed an average of just 6.9 points per game.

Forsythe says that they hope to have more success running the football than they did in the week two loss, but says that if they need to go to the air, they’re much better equipped to do so than they were two months ago.

You can hear tomorrow night’s game between the three-time defending champion Little Dutch and DC-G on 92.1 KRLS.