Twice trailing by two touchdowns, the Pella High football team rallied for a 28-21 victory over Norwalk last night in a game heard live on our KRLS2 stream at www.kniakrls.com.

The Warriors scored on an 80-yard touchdown on the second play of the game, then again on an 80-yard fumble recovery to go up 14-0, and they held a 21-7 advantage at halftime.

Pella finally turned the tide in the middle of the third quarter when Lucas Warner blocked a punt to flip field position, and little brother Sam followed it up with a seven-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Coach Jay McKinstrey said that was a huge momentum shift in the game.

“I thought, okay, hopefully, we’ve got them on their own two, so maybe we can make a chage. We certainly did that when Nick (DeJong) tipped the pass and Sam picked it off and scored. You could feel on our sideline that the game was starting to change. Our defense had played well all night, and we thought that our guys did a great job. We just needed to control the ball a little bit better and get some points on the board.”

On Pella’s next offensive drive, Avery Van Zee burst in for a 21-yard touchdown to tie the score 21-21. It stayed that way until the middle of the fourth quarter, when a Van Zee 49-yard catch-and-run set up a Reece Schnell one-yard score.

Van Zee then sealed the game with an interception on Norwalk’s final drive.

Pella improves to 6-1 overall and is in control of class 3-A district 6 at 5-0. They’ll travel to Alleman to take on North Polk next Friday, and a win clinches the district championship.