The Norwalk football team looks to stay unbeaten in district play tonight when they travel to Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff at the Gale Wickersham Athletic Complex. The game will be streamed live on kniakrls.com (KNIA3), starting with pregame coverage at 6:30.
The Warriors improved to 3-3 overall and 2-0 in Class 4A, District 6 last Friday with a commanding 38-0 win over Dallas Center-Grimes. Quarterback James Hatlevig passed for a career-high four touchdown passes – three to Eli Robbins – and running back Dominic Tigner ran for 112 yards and one score. The Norwalk defense has not allowed a point in seven consecutive quarters and kicker Tavin Ferner has highlighted strong special teams play with field goals of 44 and 46 yards the last two games.
Thomas Jefferson enters the contest at 1-5 overall and has been outscored 111-6 in a pair of district losses to DC-G and Lewis Central. Quarterback Jayden Fujii leads the Yellow Jackets with 1,159 passing yards and nine touchdowns on the season. He has also been intercepted nine times.
Norwalk coach Paul Patterson tells KNIA Sports that the Warriors will look to improve their consistency on both sides of the ball tonight, playing with discipline on defense and not trying to do too much offensively against TJ’s changing fronts.
“We want to be sharp tonight, and that really is our number one goal is walking in and being able to clean things up as we get ready to finish tonight and then keep going in district play,” Patterson said.
Tonight marks the first of two consecutive trips to Council Bluffs for Norwalk, which will play at defending 4A champion Lewis Central next Friday. The Warriors routed Thomas Jefferson 62-6 in last year’s game, returning three interceptions for touchdowns.
CROSS COUNTRY
The Norwalk cross country boys placed second out of 28 teams and the girls finished 17th in Thursday’s Fort Dodge Invite at Lakeside Municipal Golf Course.
The Class 4A ninth-ranked Warrior boys posted a score of 126, trailing only Dowling Catholic’s 41 in the team standings. Junior Teegan Kralik, who is ranked 20th in 4A, placed fourth among a field of 228 individuals with a time of 15:46. Senior Tony Anania finished only nine seconds behind Kralik and placed 12th. Norwalk’s top five finishers also included Grant Wallace in 25th, Sam Parker 36th and Aksel Beedon 49th.
The Warrior girls placed 17th out of 25 teams with a score of 479. Freshman Olive DeRocher clocked a time of 19:59 and placed 36th out of 207 runners. Norwalk also counted the placings of Grace Wetzeler (118th), Maya Butler (130th), Gabby Drymon (134th) and Khloe Scandrett (140th).
Norwalk will compete in Monday’s Little Hawkeye Conference Meet at Newton’s Maytag Park, starting with the girls varsity race at 4:50.