Photo Courtesy of Lisa K. Morgan Photography
The defense was out in full force and four rushing touchdowns from running back Benny Schirz powered the Pella Christian football team to a 43-0 victory over Ogden in a first round Class 1A playoff game heard live on the KRLS2 stream at KNIAKRLS.com Friday night.
Following a scoreless first quarter, the Eagles offense found their stride in the second. A 67-yard Trevor Veenstra run sparked the offense, setting up the first Schirz rushing score from five yards out. Following a Bulldogs three and out, the senior running back again hit paydirt, this time with a 22-yard touchdown run. A 32-yard punt return by Cooper Spronk set Pella Christian up at the five yard line just before halftime, and Schirz again scored from five yards out for his third rushing touchdown of the first half to give the Eagles a 23-0 lead at the intermission.
The second half was all Pella Christian. Schirz punched in his fourth rushing touchdown with nine minutes left in the third quarter, and Caleb Van Arendonk’s 22-yard rushing score put the Eagles up 37-0 heading into the final quarter. Van Arendonk wrapped up the scoring with a minute and half left in the game finding Spronk for a 13-yard passing touchdown to give the Eagles the win. The Pella Christian defense was suffocating in the victory, pitching their second shutout of the season and allowing Ogden just 105 total yards of offense. Eagles head coach Rich Kacmarynski was thrilled with how his defense stepped up in the postseason opener.
“It’s really hard to pitch a shutout in modern day football. I mean just the way the offense is set up, a lot of the rules are for the offense. So, to have our defense pitch another shutout in the playoffs, I’m really really proud of them, and I thought that really spoke to their focus and their intensity. I thought we did a great job against the run. They had 35 rushes for 66 yards so they had less than two yards of carry.”
Pella Christian improved to 7-2 overall on the season, and will find out their second round opponent in the Class 1A playoffs today.