The #5 Indianola football squad held on to win a 44-37 match on the road at #8 Pella, with the game going back and forth all the way down to the wire in a game heard live on both the KRLS2 Stream and 94.3 KNIA.

The Indians got the scoring started on the second play of the game with a 75 yard Kael Kolarik run, before Pella struck back with a 52-yard field goal by Luke Hardman. The Indians got another touchdown on a six yard pass to Drew Kingery from Bennett Brueck to take a 14-3 lead. The Indians eventually scored a third touchdown on a 77 yard reception by Colton Gordon, but fell behind at halftime 24-21 after the Dutch earned several scores, including a one handed catch by Aidan Pollock and a pair of Blake Meyer touchdown runs, and got a goal line stand just before halftime.

The teams battled back and forth in the second half, with Indianola getting third quarter scores from Kingery and another 64 yard connection to Gordon along with a field goal from Steph Stark put the Indians up 38-31 going into the 4th quarter. Meyer found another log touchdown run prior to those road team tallies. Pella scored a touchdown on an 18 yard run by Pollock, but missed the extra point to keep the Indians’ lead by one, and a methodical drive down the field ended in a Kolarik touchdown to put the Indians up 7 after a missed PAT on their end. Carter Erickson got back-to-back sacks on the ensuing Pella drive to end the contest and secure the Indians the win.

Indianola Head Coach Eric Kluver tells KNIA Sports he knows his squad has a long way to go still, but he is proud of the way they earned the win.

“In a game that went back and forth with a lot of adversity you could have handled this completely different but we made plays when we had to. As a coach you are disappointed on some level, but our team showed a lot of resiliency and some toughness and some guts down the stretch and that’s what you want to see out of your team.”

Brueck had 381 yards in the air and four touchdowns, while Gordon had five catches for 174 yards and two scores. The Indians improve to 3-0 on the season, and face another tough matchup at home on Friday hosting No. 4 Lewis Central.

Meyer finished with three rushing touchdowns and Pollock scored twice. Pella falls to 1-2 overall and heads to Bondurant-Farrar next Friday