Another slow start doomed the Indianola football team as they fell on the road against Ballard 16-14 on a walk-off field goal as heard live on 94.3 KNIA Friday night. The Indians gave up a 71-yard rushing touchdown on the first play to trail 7-0, then fumbled deep inside their own territory which led to a Ballard field goal to trail 10-0 in the opening minutes.

The Indians defense held Ballard to just a field goal the rest of the first half, but the offense couldn’t get anything going and Indianola trailed 13-0 at the break. Indianola woke up in the second half, converting a 4th-and-17 on a 31-yard connection from Asher Brueck to Mitch Bauer which led to a Jake Pontier 1-yard rushing touchdown to cut the lead to 13-7, then after another defensive stop Brueck hit Rylan Hilton for an 80-yard strike to lead 14-13.

The Indians got another stop late and nearly converted a 4th-and-5 inside Ballard territory that could have sealed the game, but the Bombers took control and marched down the field to hit a 35-yard field goal to win it.

Indians head coach Eric Kluver said after the game, the Indians have to play all four quarters if they want to win, and this game was a perfect example.

“Give credit to Ballard, they made one more play than us. We just looked uninterested in the first half and I have no explanation why. We had a great week of practice, a great senior group, but we just had lack of execution, lack of discipline. A lot of things went wrong, and Ballard is a good football team.”

Pontier had 108 yards and a touchdown to lead the Indians offense. Indianola falls to 3-2, and will travel to Boone next week.