Pella Christian knocked off the PCM football team last night 28-7 on Eagle Lane in Pella in a game heard live on KRLS2.

The Eagles took advantage of a roughing the punter penalty on PCM on the first series of the game to score a touchdown on Isaac Kacmarynski’s 5-yard toss to Trevor Veenstra. The only other scoring in the first half was a pair of Jack Fancher field goals and Pella Christian had a 13-0 lead at halftime.

They extended that lead on a 74-yard catch and run by Veenstra in the third quarter, then took a commanding 28-0 lead on a Kacmarynski 2-yard run in the fourth. With the Eagles trying to preserve the shutout, PCM faced a 4th-and-5 with 2:00 remaining at the Pella Christian 25 yard line. Sophomore quarterback Gavin Van Gorp fumbled an errant shotgun snap, picked it up and heaved it to the end zone where Gabe Hobbs snagged it for the final 28-7 margin.

Eagles coach Rich Kacmarynski would have loved to have the shutout, but said that his defense controlled the game for almost the entirety.

“Boy I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage and our linebackers and secondary were flying to the ball”, Kacmarynski said. “We didn’t bite on any of their play action stuff, so I thought our secondary was really disciplined. Offensively, I wouldn’t say we controlled the line of scrimmage, but I thought we managed the line of scrimmage.”

An Eagles ground game that averaged more than 500 yards a game coming in was limited to just under 200 last night. Benny Schirz had 23 carries for 103 yards to lead the way, while Veenstra snagged three passes for 100 yards and the two touchdowns.

PCM coach Greg Bonnett knew that his team needed to play a near perfect game to win, which they didn’t, but he was happy with the progress they made against a very tough opponent.

“It’s a learning curve. I figure that if our guys get into a game like this with a class like that at Pella Christian – those guys are dudes”, Bonnett said. “It was baptism under fire and our guys are going to be that much better for it in the future.”

Pella Christian improves to 3-0 and will host Van Buren to open district play next Friday night. PCM will take a 1-2 record into its district opener for homecoming next Friday night in Monroe against Iowa Falls-Alden.