The Norwalk football team secured official bragging rights of Warren County on Friday night, following up last week’s 52-32 win at Carlisle with a thrilling 21-14 home victory over Indianola. The game was heard live on kniakrls.com (KNIA3) as well as 94.3 KNIA.

The Indians put together two long second-half drives to tie the score at 7-7 in the third quarter and 14-14 in the fourth. Both times, the Warriors responded with a score of their own, including Eli Robbins’ 60-yard touchdown reception with 3:35 remaining.

Facing third-and-13 from the 40, Norwalk quarterback Aidan Harder launched a bomb toward the end zone. Robbins, Keilor Rodman and two Indianola defensive backs were all in the area when Robbins made an over-the-shoulder catch and fought off a tackler to dive across the goal line for the go-ahead score. The Warrior defense came up with two stops the rest of the way, sealing the win on linebacker Will Clark’s interception in the final minute.

Norwalk coach Paul Patterson says that Robbins’ game-winning reception is just an example of a phenomenal athlete making something happen. “Sometimes dudes just go out and make plays and it has nothing to do with us as coaches,” he said. “It’s just those guys making plays… and man, they’re just fun to watch. They’re fun to be around. They’re just a great group of kids and some of them are pretty darn good at football.”

Ranked second in Class 4A by BCMoore, the Warriors improved to 2-0 in non-district play and have already avenged two of last season’s losses. The fifth-ranked Indians dropped to 1-1.

The only score of Friday’s first half occurred with 7:12 left in the first quarter when Rodman got behind the Indianola secondary and hauled in an 80-yard touchdown pass from Harder. There were eight punts and several costly penalties in the first half, which ended with Norwalk coming up empty inside the 5-yard line as time expired.

Indianola’s second-half scoring drives both ended with one-yard TD sneaks by quarterback Andrew DeWall. Norwalk, which has answered nearly every single score by its opponents so far this season, countered the first Indianola touchdown with an 80-yard drive capped by Harder’s three-yard TD pass to Tim Koerselman. Later, it was Harder to Robbins for 60.

Harder threw his first interception of the season Friday, but finished 18-of-29 for 406 yards and three touchdowns, giving him 804 yards and eight scores through two games. Robbins finished with 210 receiving yards and Rodman had 106. Clark led the defense with eight tackles, three tackles for loss and an interception.

Norwalk returns to action next Friday night for a 7:30 non-district game at Newton. Indianola will host Pella.