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Little Hawkeye Conference rivals Pella and Norwalk will square off in the Tulip City tonight in a non-district football matchup to kickoff the 2022 season.

The two teams also met in the season opener a year ago, with the Warriors bolting out to an early 21-0 lead, then surviving to win 34-31 in overtime. Norwalk brings back several key players from last years playoff team, while the Dutch are mostly starting over, especially at the skill positions where they have virtually no experience at the varsity level.

Coach Jay McKinstrey is optimistic, however, because he’s seen a lot in practice over the last few weeks and says that they’ve developed an offensive system that his staff feels good about.

“We’re going to see a lot of different types of formations and different looks and getting the ball in different places in different ways”, McKinstrey said. “Last year was unique, but we really believe it was the right thing for who we wanted to feature. We think we can feature our play makers this year, but it’s just going to look a little different.”

McKinstrey has named senior transfer Beau Bush as his starting quarterback, but says that junior Luke Hardman will get plenty of snaps tonight as well.

Norwalk, which finished 6-4 last year following a first round playoff loss at Webster City, will be led into action by senior quarterback Landon Hochstein and senior defensive lineman Maddux Borcherding-Johnson. Hochstein passed for 1,687 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2021 and also led the Warriors with 411 rushing yards and eight TDs. His top three receivers are also back in Dillon Ranck, Braeden Carlson and Keilor Rodman.

Borcherding-Johnson, who has committed to play football at the University of Iowa, recorded a team-high 11 tackles for loss a year ago.

Norwalk coach Paul Patterson likes the makeup of his team and is very pleased with his players’ work ethic during preseason practices.

“Coming to work every day has been enjoyable. Coming to work every day has been something that you look forward to and it helps you get out of bed in the morning,” Patterson said. “The growth that we’ve seen from our kids from last year to this year has been really good, so we’re excited to see what we’ve got.”

Kickoff is at 7:30 on the newly installed field turf at Pella High School. You can hear the game live on 92.1 KRLS and the new KNIA/KRLS app, or enjoy our audio commentary with video on the Pella Dutch Live YouTube channel. Pregame starts at 6:30.

 

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