Cherokee Iowa — A pair of touchdowns late in the game sealed a 38-20 win for Cherokee over the visiting Sheldon Orabs Friday night.
Sheldon opened the scoring with a 24 yard drive following the recovery of a Cherokee muffed punt at the Braves 24 yard line. On a fourth and 10 Jaden Kleinhesselink found Kyle Boerhave for the score. Parker Nissen added the extra point and Sheldon led 7-0 with 9:07 left in the first quarter.
Cherokee answered with a 32 yard touchdown pass from Mason Pitts to Kamron Johnson. The 2-point attempt was no good and the Sheldon lead was 7-6 with 8:17 left in the first quarter.
With Cherokee punting out of their own end zone Sheldon took advantage of a kick that went out of bounds at the Cherokee 11 yard line. Kleinhesselink found Boerhave for a 5 yard score. Nissen added the extra point and the Sheldon lead was 14-6 with 2:39 left in the first quarter.
Both teams threatened with drives deep in the oppositions territory in the second quarter but both defenses held and the half time score remained at 14-6 in favor of the Orabs.
A Pitts to Trey Valentine 19 yard touchdown pass pulled Cherokee to within 14-12 with 3:41 left in the third quarter.
Following an interception in their end zone Cherokee went 98 yards to take the lead. Pitts found Michael Herwig for an 8 yard touchdown pass. The 2-point attempt failed but the Braves had taken their first lead at 18-14.
The Braves recovered an on side kick at the Sheldon 49 and turned that into points when Pitts connected with Valentine for a 49 yard score. The extra point was good and Cherokee led 25-14.
The Orabs pulled to within 25-20 when a penalty was called on the Braves during another on side kick attempt and Kleinhesselink hit Phillip Cain for a 51 yard score. The 2-point attempt was no good.
Cherokee closed out the scoring with a pair of Michael Herwig touchdown runs. He found the end zone from a yard out and from 20 yards out in the final 3:32 to make the final score 38-20 in favor of Cherokee.
Sheldon ends the year at 4-5 with a district mark of 2-5. Cherokee ends the season at 4-5 as well with a 4-3 district mark.
