Norwalk’s football season came to an end in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs Friday night as Glenwood shut out the Warriors 21-0 in a game heard live on KNIA3.

One week after out-scoring Norwalk 53-35 in the regular season finale, the third-seeded Rams won with defense in the rematch, posting their first shutout of the season. Glenwood improved to 8-2 overall and will host Bondurant-Farrar in next week’s quarterfinal round.

The Warriors lost their final three games of the season and finished 5-5. Coach Paul Patterson says that even though Friday’s result wasn’t what Norwalk had hoped for, it was special to qualify for the playoffs and spend one extra week working with this year’s team.

“They’re an awesome group,” he said. “They are fantastic young men, and that’s part of the reason why this is year 27 for me at Norwalk and year 24 as the head football coach is because we do have an awful lot of awesome kids and awesome families.

“I love what I do, I love being in Norwalk, I love our kids, and I love the opportunity to be with them… and especially in a year like this where we get 10 weeks of games with them and just the opportunity that high school football provides.”

Patterson says that the Warriors did a tremendous job defensively in limiting Glenwood to just one big play on the night after allowing the Rams 375 rushing yards and 523 total yards just seven days earlier. Glenwood scored twice in the final 6:34 of the second quarter on touchdown passes of 12 and 42 yards from Kayden Anderson to Payton Longmeyer. After the Warriors failed to capitalize on a fumble recovery and great field position to start the third quarter, the Rams drove 80 yards and took an insurmountable 21-0 lead on Kellan Scott’s two-yard TD run.

Norwalk struggled to move the football all night and was unable to take advantage of three takeaways by the defense. The Warriors managed two field goal attempts: one was blocked and another missed wide right. The team will graduate 17 seniors off the roster, including 11 who started on at least one side of the ball Friday night.