Pella High slowed down the high powered Carlisle rushing attack, earning a convincing 34-7 homecoming victory in a game heard live last night on the KRLS2 stream at www.kniakrls.com.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Little Dutch got a pair of Silas Vanderhoff field goals in the second quarter, sandwiched around a 15-yard Levi Roose fumble return for a touchdown.  Meanwhile, Coach Jay McKinstrey’s defense limited the Wildcats to just 112 yards in the first half while building a 13-0 lead.

“I told our guys at halftime that we did a great job maintaining field position and making them go the distance.  They gained some yards, but a lot of it was in their own half of the field, and then we made them punt or created a turnover.  That’s what our goal was tonight – we wanted to manage the game well.  We can’t turn the ball over, we have to do well on special teams and not give them good field position.  I thought we did a pretty good job of that.”

Two Ryan Mace touchdown runs stretched Pella’s lead to 27-0 before Carlisle found the scoreboard midway through the fourth quarter on a five yard Jonathan Dunn run.  Pella’s Blake Meyer answered with a 55-yard run to cap the scoring.

Carlisle came in averaging 370 yards rushing on the season, but the Little Dutch limited them to just 201 last night.  Meanwhile, Nolan Clayberg led Pella with 93 yards on the ground and Mace ran for 45 and threw for 116 as Pella outgained the Wildcats 345-to-235.

The Little Dutch improve to 3-2 overall and 3-0 in district play.  Up next is a trip to Bondurant-Farrar next Friday night.