Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

PELLA – Regina did several things well enough to win its postseason opener on Friday.

The Regals moved the ball, accumulating 346 yards of offense.

Regina ran efficiently with 160 yards on the ground at a better than four yard per attempt clip and held a Pella Christian offense that ranked third in 1A in rushing to 179 yards on the ground.

What Regina didn’t do on Friday against the Eagles was finish.

Regina had five drives end inside Pella Christian territory, including two inside the 15 but couldn’t produce points in a 31-0 loss to the Eagles in a Class 1A opening-round playoff contest in Pella.

“We moved the ball up and down the field we just couldn’t finish,” Regina coach Jason Dumont said. “We were moving the ball really well.”

Seventh-ranked Pella Christian got big games from senior receivers Peyton Ritzert and Jack Fancher as well as senior quarterback Isaac Kacmarynski while improving to 8-1 and returning to the 1A second round for the second straight season.

Regina closed the year 5-4.

“This is tough, this is not what we are used to,” Dumont said. “Hats off to our seniors. We were beat up all year.”

Regina reached Pella Christian territory on each of its first four drives but couldn’t produce points.

The Regals had 144 total yards on its first four possessions but had drives end with a fumble, twice on downs at the Eagle 13 and 2 yard lines and on a punt from the Pella Christian 46.

“A couple of times we got into the red zone and we just couldn’t put it in,” Regina junior Jackson Naeve said. “That was something we worked on all week and we were trying to do it all game we just couldn’t get it done.”

Meanwhile, the Pella Christian offense converted on a pair of first-half opportunities.

On the first play after senior lineman Drew Van Kooten jumped on a fumble the Eagles used some trickery to get on the scoreboard.

Ritzert tossed a 54-yard scoring strike to Fancher to put Pella Christian up 7-0 less than three minutes into the game.

It remained 7-0 until Pella Christian put together its best drive of the game, a 13-play, 76-yard march that ended with a 15-yard scoring strike from Kacmarynski to Fancer with just 41 seconds left in the opening half.

“We put the ball on the ground early, we gave up an over the top score,” Dumont said. “Defensively there were some mistakes that we made as well that we worked on all week and we just didn’t execute it tonight.”

Ritzert made it 21-0 when he hauled in a 14-yard touchdown pass from Kacmarynski with 5:05 left in the third quarter.

Pella Christian entered the game averaging 310 rushing yards per game and with eight touchdown passes all season scored on a trio of touchdown tosses finished with 179 rushing yards, 139 of which came in the second half.

“We saw them as a really run heavy team and they were, they were pretty run heavy and their lineman were good, they could move quickly, they were big guys and they could sustain blocks,” Regina senior Levi Daniel said. “Overall, they were just a really physical team. I think our defense played them well but obviously they had one or two big plays.”

Regina got a strong effort from Daniel who rushed for 89 yards and had two receptions for 23 yards in his final prep game.

Naeve rushed for 71 yards on 10 carries and also caught a team-high four passes for 71 yards.

Kacmarynski finished 12-of-21 for 138 yards and two touchdowns and also rushed for 54 yards while Benny Schirz added 84 rushing yards on 14 carries.

“They were a tough physical team,” Daniel said. “At the end of the day they just pulled through.”
ICR                PC

First Downs                           15                    14

Rushes-yards                         36-160             36-179

Comp-Att-Int                        11-22-2           14-22-0

Passing yards                        188                  192

Total yards                            348                  371

Punts-Avg.                             2-20.5              3-38

Fumbles-lost                          1-1                   2-1

Penalties-yards                      4-20                 3-20

Regina                                       0   0   0   0  –   0

Pella Christian                       7   7  10  7  –  31

PC – Jack Fancher 54 pass from Peyton Ritzert (Fancher kick)

PC – Fancher 15 pass from Isaac Kacmarynski (Fancher kick)

PC – Ritzert 14 pass from Kacmarynski (Fancher kick)

PC – Fancher 24 field goal

PC – Kacmarynski 45 interception return (Camden Parker kick)

Individual Statistics

RUSHING – ICR: Levi Daniel 18-89, Jackson Naeve 10-71, Alex Jensen 1-6, Ronan Poynton 1-0, Jose Monestina 1-0, Gentry Dumont 5-(-6). PC: Benny Schirz 14-84, Isaac Kacmarynski 16-54, Peyton Ritzert 3-43, Cooper Spronk 2-2, Team 1-(-4).

PASSING – ICR: Gentry Dumont 11-22-2 186. PC: Isaac Kacmarynski 12-21-0 138, Peyton Ritzert 1-1-0 54.

RECEIVING – ICR: Jackson Naeve 4-71, Landis Pietrzak 3-62, Levi Daniel 2-23, Steven Liu 1-16, Alex Jensen 1-10. PC: Jack Fancher 5-100, Peyton Ritzert 3-37, Trevor Veenstra 2-17, Isaiah Breems 1-19, Benny Schirz 1-17, Collin Vander Wal 1-2.

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