The Trojans had their perfect season hopes dashed last week against Pella Christian, but there’s no time to complain as they play another quality opponent tonight in the form of the Interstate 35 Roadrunners. Pleasantville sits at 5-1 on the year while I-35 is 4-2, coming off a loss to Mount Ayr last week.

It’ll be a tough test for the Trojan offense and defense. All four of the Roadrunners wins have been by shutout, and they have allowed fewer than eight points per game while scoring an average of 26. I-35 has playmakers all over the field, including quarterback Jace Bedwell. The dual threat weapon for them has 560 yards passing to go with 361 rushing and four touchdowns both with his arm and legs. They also have a running back, Logan Cassady, averaging nearly ten yards per carry and four 100-yard receivers.

Head Coach Mack Jorth knows this is going to be a tough road matchup for his squad, especially after a loss, and stresses that they must be disciplined for 48 minutes in order to come out on top, especially with a district title and first round bye still in play.

“They are big. They are physical. They’ve got speed. They’re athletic. Defensively, they are super sound and we got to be able to make plays consistently for a prolonged period of time if you’re going to score points on them. Offensively, they got athletes at quarterback. They got athletes at receiver. They got athletes at running back. They got a line that’s very big and physical. So we really gotta be ready to match that physicality and play tough, hard nosed football for an entire game if we want to come out on top.”

With a win, the Trojans will finish with their best regular season since 2017 and may wind up walking away with a district title and a first round bye next week to start the playoffs.

You can hear the action live tomorrow starting with the pregame at 6:30, kickoff at 7:00, on the KNIA3 stream at kniakrls.com.