The #5 (4A) Norwalk football team could not overcome a sluggish start, and fell to Carlisle 21-14 Friday in the annual battle for the WarCat Trophy, as aired on KNIA3. The Wildcats retain possession of the trophy for the second straight year.

A missed 40-yard field goal on the first drive was how the game started for the Warriors, and Carlisle used their ground attack to punch in two scores in their first three drives. Norwalk got on the board early in the second quarter on a touchdown pass from Landon Hochstein to Dillon Ranck, but Carlisle tacked on another score before halftime to make it 18-7. The Wildcats had an extra point blocked and missed two two-point conversions in the half.

Neither team was able to string together a touchdown drive for much of the second half, but Carlisle dominated the time of possession. In fact Norwalk only possessed the ball once in the third quarter for three plays. A Carlisle 30-yard field goal made it 21-7, which was answered by a Chase Monroe catch and run from 53 yards out to make it 21-14. The Wildcats got the ball back with 6:50 to play in regulation, and were able to run the rest of the clock out to seal the game. Norwalk Head Coach Paul Patterson says his team couldn’t recover from a rough start.

“It’s a rivalry game and records don’t mean anything. They do things offensively that make it difficult for you if you get behind. We got behind, didn’t make plays in the first half offensively, and we end up losing the battle of possession time and total number of plays. Great job out of Mark [Hoekstra] and his kids, they did a great job.”

Carlisle ran 40 offensive plays in the second half to Norwalk’s 12. The Warriors move to 6-2 overall and 3-1 in district play, but still control their own destiny to a district title after Week 8 action. A win next week at Bondurant-Farrar would earn Norwalk the district title.