The Norwalk football team saw their season come to a close on Friday night, falling to Class 4A seventh-ranked Bondurant-Farrar 34-7 in a Week 9 matchup streamed live on kniakrls.com (KNIA3).

The Warriors scored first on Landon Hochstein’s 40-yard touchdown pass to Dillon Ranck at the 9:10 mark of the first quarter, but they would not score again against the Bluejays’ bend-but-don’t-break defense.

Two Norwalk drives ended on downs at the Bondurant-Farrar 2-yard line, and a failed fake punt attempt set up the Bluejays’ go-ahead touchdown with 3:39 left in the first half.

Bondurant-Farrar led 14-7 at the break, then outscored the Warriors 20-0 the rest of the way to clinch second place in Class 4A, District 5. The Bluejays will take an 8-1 record into next week’s playoffs.

Norwalk closes the season at 5-4 overall and 2-3 in district play. The Warriors finished 18th in the final 4A RPI rankings, missing out on an at-large playoff berth by two spots.

Head coach Paul Patterson described an emotional post-game atmosphere after the loss. The Warrior roster features 30 senior players, including Patterson’s son Will, and two senior managers.

“It’s tough. Lots of emotions and it’s always hard in the last game,” he said. “It’s especially hard when your son is involved, and the kids that you watched grow up and (Will) grew up with are now done in your program. Just a very emotional day for us.”

While the season did not go as planned for Norwalk, Patterson says he is proud of how far this senior group progressed as both football players and people.

“They have left a mark on our program,” he said, “and we’re ultimately very grateful for that and we’re going to miss them dearly.”

Bondurant-Farrar, which outgained Norwalk by just 71 total yards (371-300), took control during the first four minutes of the third quarter on Colby Collison’s 70-yard touchdown pass to Reed Pfaltzgraff and Titus Cram’s 42-yard TD run. Unofficially, Collison completed 15-of-18 passes for 227 yards on the night and Cram added nearly 120 yards and two TDs on the ground.

Hochstein capped a stellar career for Norwalk by passing for 223 yards and rushing for 54. Senior receivers Ranck and Braeden Carlson combined for 12 catches and 140 yards.