It was old school football for Pella last night, using a solid running game and lock down defense to beat Oskaloosa 36-0 in a game heard live on KRLS2.

The Dutch rushed for 319 yards and hit several explosive plays on the ground as they built a 21-0 halftime lead and had the running clock on by late in the third quarter.

Aidan Pollock started the scoring with a 54-yard run just before the end of the first quarter, Nolan Clayberg’s 15-yard run made it 14-0 early in the second, and Blake Meyer hit Jason Knox for Pella’s only completed pass of the night, a 69-yard touchdown, just before halftime.

Pollock busted another big run, a 66-yarder, on the second play from scrimmage in the second half, and Kenson Fuller’s 46-yard scamper closed the scoring.  Pella coach Jay McKinstrey says that a new wrinkle keyed the success on the ground.

“We actually introduced a different type of option this week that we wanted to run with our quarterback and our running backs.  They did a really good job executing that, and you probably noticed that we ran it about seven or eight times in a row.  We were getting three or four yards, and then we’d break one a little bigger and we were getting some big plays off of that.”

Defensively, Pella limited Oskaloosa to just 118 yards of offense.  The Dutch are now 3-4 on the season and 2-1 in district play, tied with Clear Creek-Amana for second place.  Those two teams will square off next Friday night in a game that could decide the second automatic playoff berth out of the district.